You have heard about Open Access? But you don't know where to go to find out more . . You can’t get to any of the many workshops on the topic? You don’t have the funds to travel to meet OA people? You are not alone!
So to meet the needs of scattered scholarly communities around the world, and to save the air-miles and workloads of dedicated people who arrange workshops, meetings and conferences on open access, the Open Society Institute has supported the development of an online, free, authoritative ‘source book’ that aims to meet the OA-needs of researchers, publishers, administrators, librarians, students and the general public alike.It should serve as an invaluable, reliable and up-to-the-minute resource for everyone concerned with the widest distribution of research information. For developing country scholarly communities, OASIS will be a treasure chest.
If you want to know how to set up an OA Institutional Repository – go OASIS! If you want to know which universities or funding organisations have OA policies in operation – go OASIS! If you want to know what business plans OA publishers have found to work best – go OASIS! There are loads of links, articles, summaries and even videos, so it is an excellent one-stop-OA-shop.
Here is the official announcement of the launch, with links to this new resource:
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The Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS) is being launched at the 13th International Conference on Electronic Publishing (ELUB2009), taking place in Milan, Italy from June 10-12.
OASIS aims to provide an authoritative 'sourcebook' on Open Access, covering the concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieving it. The site highlights developments and initiatives from around the world, with links to diverse additional resources and case studies. As such, it is a community-building as much as a resource building exercise. Users are encouraged to share and download the resources provided, and to modify and customize them for local use. For details about the site, please visit the OASIS web site.
A brief introduction to OASIS is available here.
For more information, contact Alma Swan or Leslie Chan
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The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development is pleased to have been associated with the development of OASIS and wishes all concerned much success.
Friday, 12 June 2009
Monday, 8 June 2009
eIFL surges ahead - and gives us a little treat!
As OA gains momentum throughout the world, the efforts made by the OSI-supported eIFl network are notable. Recent announcements in Open Access News show that there has been remarkable OA progress not only in South Africa, but in the Ukraine and elsewhere in the partner countries. Iryna Kuchma and colleagues are to be congratulated in achieving such success and we recommend subscribing to the eIFL Newsletter to keep up with the developments. For all eIFL Newsletters, see here.
And for a delightful treat, just watch the short video in which ‘Access to Knowledge’ is spoken by eIFL partners in their own languages. Click here and enjoy!
And for a delightful treat, just watch the short video in which ‘Access to Knowledge’ is spoken by eIFL partners in their own languages. Click here and enjoy!
Wednesday, 27 May 2009
Growing recognition of the need to share research findings
First India's CSIR, then CGIAR's ICRISAT network and now South Africa's University of Pretoria have recently adopted (or in the case of CSIR, strongly recommended) a requirement for their researchers to make all publications arising from their work openly accessable to all. These institutional mandates show a recognition by developing/emerging country organisations that for their research to become part of the global knowledge base and accelerate the rate of finding solutions to urgent problems, free access to their research output is essential.
This news comes just as new charts showing the growth of world-wide open access mandates has been published by Alma Swan on her blog, Optimal Scholarship. The chart of half-yearly increases, shown below, clearly indicates that a better understanding of the need for sharing research information is taking place, and developing countries are joining Harvard, MIT, Wellcome Trust, and over 80 other seats of learning in accelerating the speed of research distribution and thus making best use of funding. For a full list of open access policies, see the ROARmap database.
This news comes just as new charts showing the growth of world-wide open access mandates has been published by Alma Swan on her blog, Optimal Scholarship. The chart of half-yearly increases, shown below, clearly indicates that a better understanding of the need for sharing research information is taking place, and developing countries are joining Harvard, MIT, Wellcome Trust, and over 80 other seats of learning in accelerating the speed of research distribution and thus making best use of funding. For a full list of open access policies, see the ROARmap database.
Monday, 25 May 2009
eIFL survey of institutional repositories
eIFL has set up a study to establish the extent to which developing and transitional countries have established institutional repositories. It is part of a cooperative programme between eIFL.net, the University of Kansas Libraries, the EU's DRIVER project and Key Perspectives Ltd., and aims at creating an inventory of current digital repository activities in these regions, at both the infrastructure and services level.
The results of the survey will provide information on the numbers of IRs already in existence, and also on the services they are providing for their research communities.
In order to arrive at a realistic picture, the more organisations that participate the better, so if you are associated in any way with a repository at your organisation, we hope you will take part. To reach the Survey,click here.
The results of the survey will provide information on the numbers of IRs already in existence, and also on the services they are providing for their research communities.
In order to arrive at a realistic picture, the more organisations that participate the better, so if you are associated in any way with a repository at your organisation, we hope you will take part. To reach the Survey,click here.
Sunday, 10 May 2009
Attention all scholarly OA-waverers
Attention all scholars, confused about the Open Access opportunities now open to you! Here is a clear outline of the current situation and the benefits it brings to you personally as well as to your institute or university department. Here is the link to the article made freely available in University World News.
Written by Leslie Chan, of the University of Toronto, Director of Bioline International and Trustee of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development, he knows all there is to know about Open Access and you can depend on the information he gives. Directed originally to Canadian scholars, it is applicable to the global academic community. Don’t miss it! Pass it on to your co-waverers!
Written by Leslie Chan, of the University of Toronto, Director of Bioline International and Trustee of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development, he knows all there is to know about Open Access and you can depend on the information he gives. Directed originally to Canadian scholars, it is applicable to the global academic community. Don’t miss it! Pass it on to your co-waverers!
Thursday, 7 May 2009
OA journal focussing on emerging health threats
A new Open Access journal: Emerging Health Threats Journal will be of particular interest to medical research, healthcare professionals and librarians, especially in the developing regions of the world where the effects of conflict and emerging new infectious diseases are prevalent. To quote from the journal’s website, ‘Emerging health threats are the myriad of new and evolving health issues that society faces on a daily basis, including new infectious diseases, chemical and environmental hazards, radiation exposure, disasters, and cultural and population health issues. One issue of the Emerging Health Threats Monitor alone includes topics as diverse as the effects of climate change on developing countries, the effects of traffic pollution on children, the fatal impact of environmental arsenic, and the outbreak of Rift Valley fever in the Comoros Islands.’
To access the journal, click here.
To access the journal, click here.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Reassuring Open Access-waverers
In the OA-sphere there are two worlds, the OA-rich and the OA-poor.
The OA-rich world may be economically poor, but understands the great benefits that OA can bring to its national research base, its education, its institutes and the progress of global research. The OA-poor world may be economically rich, but has not been informed about OA, or has been misinformed about OA, or is failing to understand how access to scholarly information is changing for the good in the age of the Internet.
But there’s a problem. The rich world has now moved on from describing the great benefits of OA to its authors, readers and administrators. As its constituencies have understood and adapted, it has begun to discuss the technicalities of tracking versions; it is wondering how data can be archived and shared; it has begun to worry about the slowness of authors to deposit their research into their institutional repositories; it is considering whether Face Book and Twitter have a place; it is assessing the value of downloads versus citations. It is gnawing away at the endless possibilities that OA has opened up . . . taking its future existence for granted.
But as the OA-rich communities discuss progress and new developments, they perforce repeat the difficulties. ‘There are still only 16% of the world’s research articles available through OA – how can we speed this up?’, yet they no longer mention that even 16% represents millions of free research articles. ‘There are only 1300 IRs so far’ – yet they don’t mention that these are increasing at the rate of 1-2/day (1319 yesterday, 1321 today!). ‘It has taken $xxxxx to set up our campus-wide digital resource’ – yet a simple repository to hold an institute’s research publications can be done on a shoe-string. ‘There has to be long-term commitment’ – very true, and in organisations that have understood the importance and value to them of OA, the commitment is there. As the debates and exchange of ideas surge ahead, organisations that are not immersed in the exciting OA opportunities for research communities only hear about the remaining challenges while the great benefits are no longer voiced. And hardly anyone bothers to mention the highly impressive usage being made of OA resources – which in the end is all that counts.
It is a bit like trying to sell a ‘green’ car. ‘Yes, madam, it is a bit small. No, it doesn’t have central locking. No, it doesn’t have retractable wing mirrors’. . . . no sale. But the successful salesman adds, ‘But you will save $x on fuel. You will save $x on tyre replacements. You will have very low insurance costs. You will have very low greenhouse gas emissions. We sold three models yesterday alone . . . they are the cars of the future. Would you like a test drive?’
For OA newcomers there are plenty of test drives to be found at ePrints and elsewhere, and there are very satisfied customers at Harvard, MIT, UK Research Councils, Wellcome Trust, Universities in Portugal, Australia, Venezuela, India, Scotland . . . . see ROAR or openDOAR. And the OA-usage statistics are incontestable proof that these organisations have made the right choice, see for example the University of Strathclyde , or the University de los Andes.
Organisations and individuals that still hesitate should get the full story and ask themselves if such prestigious organisations as Harvard would unanimously agree to an open access policy unless it was right for its organisation, right for the progress of research? But how to get the full story that is authoritative, up-to-date, impartial? Fortunately, the OSI-supported Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS) is coming to a website near you very soon, to provide a comprehensive resource for all would-be OA-rich scholars.
Posted by Barbara Kirsop, Electronic Publishing Trust for Development.
The OA-rich world may be economically poor, but understands the great benefits that OA can bring to its national research base, its education, its institutes and the progress of global research. The OA-poor world may be economically rich, but has not been informed about OA, or has been misinformed about OA, or is failing to understand how access to scholarly information is changing for the good in the age of the Internet.
But there’s a problem. The rich world has now moved on from describing the great benefits of OA to its authors, readers and administrators. As its constituencies have understood and adapted, it has begun to discuss the technicalities of tracking versions; it is wondering how data can be archived and shared; it has begun to worry about the slowness of authors to deposit their research into their institutional repositories; it is considering whether Face Book and Twitter have a place; it is assessing the value of downloads versus citations. It is gnawing away at the endless possibilities that OA has opened up . . . taking its future existence for granted.
But as the OA-rich communities discuss progress and new developments, they perforce repeat the difficulties. ‘There are still only 16% of the world’s research articles available through OA – how can we speed this up?’, yet they no longer mention that even 16% represents millions of free research articles. ‘There are only 1300 IRs so far’ – yet they don’t mention that these are increasing at the rate of 1-2/day (1319 yesterday, 1321 today!). ‘It has taken $xxxxx to set up our campus-wide digital resource’ – yet a simple repository to hold an institute’s research publications can be done on a shoe-string. ‘There has to be long-term commitment’ – very true, and in organisations that have understood the importance and value to them of OA, the commitment is there. As the debates and exchange of ideas surge ahead, organisations that are not immersed in the exciting OA opportunities for research communities only hear about the remaining challenges while the great benefits are no longer voiced. And hardly anyone bothers to mention the highly impressive usage being made of OA resources – which in the end is all that counts.
It is a bit like trying to sell a ‘green’ car. ‘Yes, madam, it is a bit small. No, it doesn’t have central locking. No, it doesn’t have retractable wing mirrors’. . . . no sale. But the successful salesman adds, ‘But you will save $x on fuel. You will save $x on tyre replacements. You will have very low insurance costs. You will have very low greenhouse gas emissions. We sold three models yesterday alone . . . they are the cars of the future. Would you like a test drive?’
For OA newcomers there are plenty of test drives to be found at ePrints and elsewhere, and there are very satisfied customers at Harvard, MIT, UK Research Councils, Wellcome Trust, Universities in Portugal, Australia, Venezuela, India, Scotland . . . . see ROAR or openDOAR. And the OA-usage statistics are incontestable proof that these organisations have made the right choice, see for example the University of Strathclyde , or the University de los Andes.
Organisations and individuals that still hesitate should get the full story and ask themselves if such prestigious organisations as Harvard would unanimously agree to an open access policy unless it was right for its organisation, right for the progress of research? But how to get the full story that is authoritative, up-to-date, impartial? Fortunately, the OSI-supported Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook (OASIS) is coming to a website near you very soon, to provide a comprehensive resource for all would-be OA-rich scholars.
Posted by Barbara Kirsop, Electronic Publishing Trust for Development.
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