Creative Commons provides an easy way for creators to obtain licenses indicating how their work may be used. CC licenses are readable by machines as well as by humans. CC can simplify the process of relating and understanding permissions, for authors, publishers, and readers alike.
There are many CC licenses. Here are some options that are most likely to be useful for open access authors and publishers:
attribution-noncommercial-sharealike: this allows others to reuse your work, as long as you are appropriately attributed, but not to sell the work for a profit. Derivatives of your work are allowed, as long as the person making the derivative shares the work with others as you have with them. Rockefeller University Press just implemented this CC license (thanks to Peter Suber on
Open Access News).
attribution-sharealike: as above, but allows for commercial uses as well.
While I recommend the use of Sharealike to facilitate further dissemination of a work as open access, this element is not absolutely necessary for a creative commons open access license. attribution-noncommercial and just plain attribution are perfectly suitable as open access licenses, too.
There are other CC licenses that are perfectly compatible with open access, such as public domain, or that may be of interest, such as the GNU GPL (open source) license.
Many open access authors and publishers are beginning to use Creative Commons licenses. CC licenses cover a great many of the situations creators would like to cover - but not all. For example, the Sharealike element applies to derivatives; some creators (myself included) might like to see Sharealike applied to exact copies of the original, too. If CC does not quite fit, no worries - you can choose the closest license, or not use CC at all. What is important is making your work open access.
Wednesday, April 30, 2008
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Open Doors and Open Minds
SPARC and Science Commons have just released a White Paper outlining the Harvard faculty open access policy, and steps that others can take to implement such a policy at their own institution, beautifully named OPEN DOORS AND OPEN MINDS: What faculty authors can do to ensure open access to their work through their institution.
Highly recommended! Thanks to Ray English on SCHOLCOMM.
Highly recommended! Thanks to Ray English on SCHOLCOMM.
Monday, April 28, 2008
For Sale: New, Improved, Locked-Down Version of Cell Wall
[Reader caution: take this post with a large grain of salt]
New improved, locked-down version of Cell Wall
Earlier today, IJPE announced the sale of a plain PDF version of Cell Wall for 50 Euros or US dollars. Now we are pleased to announced the same of a new, improved version of Cell Wall, featuring restrictive DRM technology and a secretive contract purchase license, for a mere hundred Euros or US dollars!
The DRM-protected version is locked down. Text cannot be modified. This will protect your purchase from accidental changes you might make to a more open version. Inquire about our forthcoming "green" version, with additional lock-down technology to prevent any possibility of printing the document, at a modest additional cost.
This purchase features a special "secrecy" license contract. To sign up, all you need to do is to agree to the following:
I agree that my purchase of Cell Wall is completely confidential. I greatly appreciate IJPE's keeping of my purchase private. I will never take any action publicly that could reveal this purchase, such as speaking or writing in such a way as to indicate having read the article, for example by citing it.
Full attribution of Cell Wall
Cell-wall structural changes in wheat straw pretreated for bioethanol production
Jan B Kristensen1, Lisbeth G Thygesen, Claus Felby, Henning Jørgensen,and Thomas Elder
Biotechnology for Biofuels Volume 1
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/home
Heather's Comment: this scenario, while somewhat absurd, illustrates some of the uses that can be made of an item with a CC-BY license with an open access articles such as Cell Wall.
Allowing for commercial reuse of a work, means allowing for resale without compensation for author or publisher.
Allowing for derivatives means allowing for derivatives that the author or publisher would have issues with, for a variety of reasons. Many open access authors and publishers would not like the idea of someone adding DRM to OA work, as with this scenario.
New improved, locked-down version of Cell Wall
Earlier today, IJPE announced the sale of a plain PDF version of Cell Wall for 50 Euros or US dollars. Now we are pleased to announced the same of a new, improved version of Cell Wall, featuring restrictive DRM technology and a secretive contract purchase license, for a mere hundred Euros or US dollars!
The DRM-protected version is locked down. Text cannot be modified. This will protect your purchase from accidental changes you might make to a more open version. Inquire about our forthcoming "green" version, with additional lock-down technology to prevent any possibility of printing the document, at a modest additional cost.
This purchase features a special "secrecy" license contract. To sign up, all you need to do is to agree to the following:
I agree that my purchase of Cell Wall is completely confidential. I greatly appreciate IJPE's keeping of my purchase private. I will never take any action publicly that could reveal this purchase, such as speaking or writing in such a way as to indicate having read the article, for example by citing it.
Full attribution of Cell Wall
Cell-wall structural changes in wheat straw pretreated for bioethanol production
Jan B Kristensen1, Lisbeth G Thygesen, Claus Felby, Henning Jørgensen,and Thomas Elder
Biotechnology for Biofuels Volume 1
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/home
Heather's Comment: this scenario, while somewhat absurd, illustrates some of the uses that can be made of an item with a CC-BY license with an open access articles such as Cell Wall.
Allowing for commercial reuse of a work, means allowing for resale without compensation for author or publisher.
Allowing for derivatives means allowing for derivatives that the author or publisher would have issues with, for a variety of reasons. Many open access authors and publishers would not like the idea of someone adding DRM to OA work, as with this scenario.
Matt Cockerill on For Sale: Cell-Wall Structural Changes
Here is Matthew Cockerill's comment on http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com/2008/04/for-sale-cell-wall-structural-changes.html
(posted with permission):
Anyway, this isn't problematic and it is not a theoretical possibility,
it is already happening in the real world.
There are plenty of service providers (including Infotrieve and the
British Library) who will, if requested deliver a printed copy (or an
electronic copy, for that matter) of an OA article, on payment of a
service fee (but not a copyright fee).
From BioMed Central's point of view, this is a good thing. There are a
fair number of information professionals, whether working at pharma
companies or in the academic sector, who value the convenience and
time-saving of being able to go to a single source to order up a range
of documents (both OA and non-OA), and to have them all promptly
delivered as a collection. Both Infotrieve and the BL will do this,
charging users a service fee to do so.
A "no commercial use" constraint would prevent this kind of
redistribution, and so lessen the ease of availability of OA articles in
that context.
Matt
PS obviously, if the wording suggested that the service provider *owned*
the research article concerned, or that the user *must* pay a fee in
order to read it, or that the fee concerned was a copyright fee, then
that would be false advertising.
Heather's comment: a document delivery fee-for-service (as charged by Infotrieve and the British Library) is different from charging for the content per se. There has to be a way to enable this kind of distribution, with a blanket commercial license. More later...
(posted with permission):
Anyway, this isn't problematic and it is not a theoretical possibility,
it is already happening in the real world.
There are plenty of service providers (including Infotrieve and the
British Library) who will, if requested deliver a printed copy (or an
electronic copy, for that matter) of an OA article, on payment of a
service fee (but not a copyright fee).
From BioMed Central's point of view, this is a good thing. There are a
fair number of information professionals, whether working at pharma
companies or in the academic sector, who value the convenience and
time-saving of being able to go to a single source to order up a range
of documents (both OA and non-OA), and to have them all promptly
delivered as a collection. Both Infotrieve and the BL will do this,
charging users a service fee to do so.
A "no commercial use" constraint would prevent this kind of
redistribution, and so lessen the ease of availability of OA articles in
that context.
Matt
PS obviously, if the wording suggested that the service provider *owned*
the research article concerned, or that the user *must* pay a fee in
order to read it, or that the fee concerned was a copyright fee, then
that would be false advertising.
Heather's comment: a document delivery fee-for-service (as charged by Infotrieve and the British Library) is different from charging for the content per se. There has to be a way to enable this kind of distribution, with a blanket commercial license. More later...
For sale: cell-wall structural changes
[Reader caution: do not take seriously!]
A high-quality PDF of the following article is now available! To access your copy, please send 50 Euros or US$ to the author of IJPE.
Cell-wall structural changes in wheat straw pretreated for bioethanol production
Jan B Kristensen1, Lisbeth G Thygesen, Claus Felby, Henning Jørgensen,and Thomas Elder
Biotechnology for Biofuels Volume 1
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/home
[Note for Revenue Canada: this is not a serious business venture, rather a hypothetical illustration of one model for open access - CC-BY. In the unlikely event that anyone contacts the author for a copy of this article, as an avid open access advocate I will point out that the article is freely available from BioMedCentral, and other sources].
A high-quality PDF of the following article is now available! To access your copy, please send 50 Euros or US$ to the author of IJPE.
Cell-wall structural changes in wheat straw pretreated for bioethanol production
Jan B Kristensen1, Lisbeth G Thygesen, Claus Felby, Henning Jørgensen,and Thomas Elder
Biotechnology for Biofuels Volume 1
http://www.biotechnologyforbiofuels.com/home
[Note for Revenue Canada: this is not a serious business venture, rather a hypothetical illustration of one model for open access - CC-BY. In the unlikely event that anyone contacts the author for a copy of this article, as an avid open access advocate I will point out that the article is freely available from BioMedCentral, and other sources].
Sunday, April 27, 2008
Access to Knowledge (A2K): promoting user access a central objective of copyright law
African Copyright & Access to Knowledge, is probing the relationship in African countries between national copyright environments and access to hard-copy and digital learning materials. The project is probing this relationship within an access to knowledge (A2K) framework – a framework which regards the protection/promotion of user access as one of the central objectives of copyright law.
Sponsors of the African Copyright & Access to Knowledge include South Africa's Shuttleworth Foundation and Canada's International Development and Research Center / Centre de recherches pour le developpment international, previously recognized on IJPE for Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement for IDRC's ambitious plans to make all IDRC-funded research openly accessible in the IDRC repository.
Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News.
Sponsors of the African Copyright & Access to Knowledge include South Africa's Shuttleworth Foundation and Canada's International Development and Research Center / Centre de recherches pour le developpment international, previously recognized on IJPE for Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement for IDRC's ambitious plans to make all IDRC-funded research openly accessible in the IDRC repository.
Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News.
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Industry Committee on Canada's Science and Technology Strategy
Michael Geist has posted his reply to the Industry Committee on Canada's Science and Technology Strategy, along with links to the replies of others posted online.
Here is my response to the consultation:
April 18, 2008
Dear Mr. James Rajotte and Committee Members,
Re: Study on Canadian Science and Technology
It is wonderful to see this all-party committee working together on a matter that will make such a great difference to the future of Canada. Thank you for the opportunity to provide input. The comments that I am making are as an individual professional librarian and adjunct faculty member with expertise in the areas of open access and scholarly communications.
Science, research and development are indeed essential for positioning Canada for the knowledge economy, as pointed out in your News Release. Furthering our knowledge through research is important for other reasons as well. There is an urgent need for humankind to figure out how to live in harmony with our environment, and with each other. For example, research is needed to identify ecologically sound agricultural practices and business opportunities.
The results of federally funded research performed in government and higher education should be made openly accessible to all. The taxpayers (individuals or businesses) who have funded this research have a right to read the results, without having to pay again. This concept applies to all peer-reviewed publications arising from federally funded research, as well as all research data with the exception of limitations necessary to protect individual privacy.
Open access refers to literature that is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and permissions barriers.
According to the Budapest Open Access Initiative http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml, open access is:
By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited
Open Access is the best way to achieve maximum benefit from Canadian research dollars. While researchers at Canada’s largest universities enjoy substantial access to the research literature, other Canadians are largely without access. An entrepreneur in a rural area, for example, is likely to have access to only a tiny portion of the world’s scholarly literature through their local public library. The same is true of the rural doctor, nurse. college or high school teacher, librarian, engineer, journalist, lawyer, politician and civil servant, to name a few examples.
Making the knowledge created through federal funding readily available to all these people benefits us all. For example, if our doctors and nurses have an easy means to keep up with the latest developments and look up the latest research on our conditions, everyone benefits. Many patients, too, nowadays are taking charge of learning about their own conditions, and want to be able to access the research literature.
Governments and universities around the world have developed, or are developing, policies requiring open access to the results of research that they fund.
Here in Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has a Policy on Access to Research Outputs requiring open access to results of CIHR-funded research, within 6 months of publication. Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council adopted a policy in favor of open access in 2004, and currently has a pilot Aid to Open Access Journals program. The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance and Genome Canada have open access policies, and other research funders in Canada are considering such policies.
Internationally, l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche has a strong open access policy. All of the Research Councils UK either have, or are developing, open access policies. The US National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest medical research funder, implemented a Public Access Policy in 2004. Effective April 7, 2008, the NIH voluntary Public Access Policy becomes a requirement for Public Access within 12 months of publication. About 400 publishers are voluntarily cooperating with NIH to make all of their journals openly accessible, not just the work funded by NIH.
The European University Association recently unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for open access mandates to be developed in every university in Europe. At Harvard, an open access policy came from the faculty themselves; the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences have extended to Harvard a non-exclusive license to make their work available to everyone through the Harvard institutional repository.
Here is my response to the consultation:
April 18, 2008
Dear Mr. James Rajotte and Committee Members,
Re: Study on Canadian Science and Technology
It is wonderful to see this all-party committee working together on a matter that will make such a great difference to the future of Canada. Thank you for the opportunity to provide input. The comments that I am making are as an individual professional librarian and adjunct faculty member with expertise in the areas of open access and scholarly communications.
Science, research and development are indeed essential for positioning Canada for the knowledge economy, as pointed out in your News Release. Furthering our knowledge through research is important for other reasons as well. There is an urgent need for humankind to figure out how to live in harmony with our environment, and with each other. For example, research is needed to identify ecologically sound agricultural practices and business opportunities.
The results of federally funded research performed in government and higher education should be made openly accessible to all. The taxpayers (individuals or businesses) who have funded this research have a right to read the results, without having to pay again. This concept applies to all peer-reviewed publications arising from federally funded research, as well as all research data with the exception of limitations necessary to protect individual privacy.
Open access refers to literature that is digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and permissions barriers.
According to the Budapest Open Access Initiative http://www.soros.org/openaccess/read.shtml, open access is:
By "open access" to this literature, we mean its free availability on the public internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software, or use them for any other lawful purpose, without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. The only constraint on reproduction and distribution, and the only role for copyright in this domain, should be to give authors control over the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited
Open Access is the best way to achieve maximum benefit from Canadian research dollars. While researchers at Canada’s largest universities enjoy substantial access to the research literature, other Canadians are largely without access. An entrepreneur in a rural area, for example, is likely to have access to only a tiny portion of the world’s scholarly literature through their local public library. The same is true of the rural doctor, nurse. college or high school teacher, librarian, engineer, journalist, lawyer, politician and civil servant, to name a few examples.
Making the knowledge created through federal funding readily available to all these people benefits us all. For example, if our doctors and nurses have an easy means to keep up with the latest developments and look up the latest research on our conditions, everyone benefits. Many patients, too, nowadays are taking charge of learning about their own conditions, and want to be able to access the research literature.
Governments and universities around the world have developed, or are developing, policies requiring open access to the results of research that they fund.
Here in Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has a Policy on Access to Research Outputs requiring open access to results of CIHR-funded research, within 6 months of publication. Canada’s Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council adopted a policy in favor of open access in 2004, and currently has a pilot Aid to Open Access Journals program. The Canadian Breast Cancer Research Alliance and Genome Canada have open access policies, and other research funders in Canada are considering such policies.
Internationally, l’Agence Nationale de la Recherche has a strong open access policy. All of the Research Councils UK either have, or are developing, open access policies. The US National Institutes of Health, the world’s largest medical research funder, implemented a Public Access Policy in 2004. Effective April 7, 2008, the NIH voluntary Public Access Policy becomes a requirement for Public Access within 12 months of publication. About 400 publishers are voluntarily cooperating with NIH to make all of their journals openly accessible, not just the work funded by NIH.
The European University Association recently unanimously endorsed a resolution calling for open access mandates to be developed in every university in Europe. At Harvard, an open access policy came from the faculty themselves; the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences have extended to Harvard a non-exclusive license to make their work available to everyone through the Harvard institutional repository.
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Open Access for the Australian Medical Librarian
Andrew Waller & I have just posted a copy of our latest article, Open Access for the Australian Medical Librarian, in E-LIS.
This is an updated and revised version of our "Open Access for the Medical Librarian", published in the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association in 2005.
Abstract:
“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good” (Budapest Open Access Initiative)1. Recent events are transforming the possibility of this unprecedented public good into a reality, with medical literature leading the way. The Directory of Open Access Journals lists close to 3,200 fully open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals as of February 2008. More than 400 of the journals in DOAJ are in the health sciences. DOAJ is growing rapidly, adding more than 1.5 titles per calendar day. PubMedCentral (PMC) is the world’s largest open access archive, with well over a million items. An international network, PMC International, is envisioned, with copies of the whole archive around the world for preservation and security, as well as a local option for deposit. Watch for rapid growth of PMC as medical research funders, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, the U.K. Medical Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, among others, are requiring public or open access to the research they fund. There are implications, and leadership opportunities, for librarians in the open access environment.
This is an updated and revised version of our "Open Access for the Medical Librarian", published in the Journal of the Canadian Health Libraries Association in 2005.
Abstract:
“An old tradition and a new technology have converged to make possible an unprecedented public good” (Budapest Open Access Initiative)1. Recent events are transforming the possibility of this unprecedented public good into a reality, with medical literature leading the way. The Directory of Open Access Journals lists close to 3,200 fully open access, peer-reviewed scholarly journals as of February 2008. More than 400 of the journals in DOAJ are in the health sciences. DOAJ is growing rapidly, adding more than 1.5 titles per calendar day. PubMedCentral (PMC) is the world’s largest open access archive, with well over a million items. An international network, PMC International, is envisioned, with copies of the whole archive around the world for preservation and security, as well as a local option for deposit. Watch for rapid growth of PMC as medical research funders, including the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Wellcome Trust, the U.K. Medical Research Council, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, among others, are requiring public or open access to the research they fund. There are implications, and leadership opportunities, for librarians in the open access environment.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Open Access Class May-June 2008 Syllabus
The Syllabus for LIBR559K, the Open Access Class, which I teach at the University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies, for May-June 2008, has been posted.
The Required and Recommended readings and resources would be a good starting point for anyone wanting to learn about open access.
Another good starting point is Dean Guistini's Top Five (5) Ways for Librarians to Contribute to Open Access (OA) Movement
The Required and Recommended readings and resources would be a good starting point for anyone wanting to learn about open access.
Another good starting point is Dean Guistini's Top Five (5) Ways for Librarians to Contribute to Open Access (OA) Movement
An Author's Letter to Go with the Addendum
Here is an example of a successful letter used by author Greg Linnell to gain permission for providing open access to a forthcoming article, to be published in a subscription-based journal. Publication details have been removed for privacy reasons, and to facilitate use of the letter as an example for other authors.
Enclosed you will find a signed copy of [your journal's] author’s contract together with a signed copy of the SPARC Canadian Author’s Addendum to Publication Agreement.
My intention is for my contribution, “insert title here,” should it be accepted, to appear on [institutional or disciplinary repository, e.g. E-LIS.] As mentioned in the Addendum, [journal title] will be mentioned as the source for the first publication of the article.
[Insert statement of your support / involvement with OA, e.g. "I have been a long-time supporter of open access and am currently a member of the Canadian Library Association’s Task Force on Open Access"]. If you wish to learn more about the Addendum please consult the following Canadian Association of Research Libraries brochure: http://www.carl-abrc.ca/projects/author/EngBrochure.pdf
Thank you for all of your hard work in getting things going again at [journal title]. I am sure that I am not the only contributor who is extremely appreciative of your efforts!
Thanks and congratulations, Greg!
Enclosed you will find a signed copy of [your journal's] author’s contract together with a signed copy of the SPARC Canadian Author’s Addendum to Publication Agreement.
My intention is for my contribution, “insert title here,” should it be accepted, to appear on [institutional or disciplinary repository, e.g. E-LIS.] As mentioned in the Addendum, [journal title] will be mentioned as the source for the first publication of the article.
[Insert statement of your support / involvement with OA, e.g. "I have been a long-time supporter of open access and am currently a member of the Canadian Library Association’s Task Force on Open Access"]. If you wish to learn more about the Addendum please consult the following Canadian Association of Research Libraries brochure: http://www.carl-abrc.ca/projects/author/EngBrochure.pdf
Thank you for all of your hard work in getting things going again at [journal title]. I am sure that I am not the only contributor who is extremely appreciative of your efforts!
Thanks and congratulations, Greg!
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
BCLA Submission to Study on Canadian Science and Technology
The British Columbia Library Association has just submitted a very pro-open-access response to the Canadian Standing Committee on Industry, Science & Technology's Study on Canadian Science and Technology.
BCLA’s comment on the Study on Canadian Science and Technology focuses on the issue of federally funded research performed in government and higher education.
BCLA believes that federally funded research should be openly accessible to everyone, everywhere. Taxpayers, whether they are individual or businesses, should have access to the results of research that they have funded. The entrepreneur in the smaller or more remote center looking for ideas and opportunities to set up the kind of new businesses Canada needs, businesses that are prepared to thrive and grow in a knowledge economy, businesses that work with instead of against our environment, has just as much right to the results of research funded by the Canadian government, as does the large, wealthy corporation.
Rural doctors and other health professionals have a right to the results of the very latest research funded by Canadian tax dollars. Their patients have a right to benefit from this access for their health professionals, and they also have a right to read the research literature for themselves, if they choose.
All Canadians benefit from public access to the results of federally funded research. If a civil servant, politician, teacher, parent, or school trustee is able to make a better, more informed decision because they have access to the best and latest knowledge; this is for the good of all.
BCLA strongly supports the principle and practice of Open Access. The association adopted a Resolution on Open Access in 2004, and is recognized on the Open Access Timeline as one of the first library associations in the world to do so.
Kudos to BCLA for yet another fine example of Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement.
Update April 16 - reply from the Standing Committee (via the Information Policy Committee list):
This is to acknowledge that the Clerk of the Standing Committee on Industry Science and Technology has received your organization’s brief for the study of Canadian Science and Technology.
The Committee thanks you for your important contribution to their work on this topic.
Should you wish to follow the Committee’s work on this study, please consult the Committee’s website at the following address:
http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteeHome.aspx?Lang=1&PARLSES=392&JNT=0&SELID=e17_&COM=13191
Also note that public meetings are available in a live audio feed on ParlVu at:
http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/parlvu/guide.asp?view=&cat=&target=2008-3-20&event
BCLA’s comment on the Study on Canadian Science and Technology focuses on the issue of federally funded research performed in government and higher education.
BCLA believes that federally funded research should be openly accessible to everyone, everywhere. Taxpayers, whether they are individual or businesses, should have access to the results of research that they have funded. The entrepreneur in the smaller or more remote center looking for ideas and opportunities to set up the kind of new businesses Canada needs, businesses that are prepared to thrive and grow in a knowledge economy, businesses that work with instead of against our environment, has just as much right to the results of research funded by the Canadian government, as does the large, wealthy corporation.
Rural doctors and other health professionals have a right to the results of the very latest research funded by Canadian tax dollars. Their patients have a right to benefit from this access for their health professionals, and they also have a right to read the research literature for themselves, if they choose.
All Canadians benefit from public access to the results of federally funded research. If a civil servant, politician, teacher, parent, or school trustee is able to make a better, more informed decision because they have access to the best and latest knowledge; this is for the good of all.
BCLA strongly supports the principle and practice of Open Access. The association adopted a Resolution on Open Access in 2004, and is recognized on the Open Access Timeline as one of the first library associations in the world to do so.
Kudos to BCLA for yet another fine example of Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement.
Update April 16 - reply from the Standing Committee (via the Information Policy Committee list):
This is to acknowledge that the Clerk of the Standing Committee on Industry Science and Technology has received your organization’s brief for the study of Canadian Science and Technology.
The Committee thanks you for your important contribution to their work on this topic.
Should you wish to follow the Committee’s work on this study, please consult the Committee’s website at the following address:
http://cmte.parl.gc.ca/cmte/CommitteeHome.aspx?Lang=1&PARLSES=392&JNT=0&SELID=e17_&COM=13191
Also note that public meetings are available in a live audio feed on ParlVu at:
http://parlvu.parl.gc.ca/parlvu/guide.asp?view=&cat=&target=2008-3-20&event
Monday, April 14, 2008
Dean Guistini completes open access series
Dean Giustini has just posted the second part of his series on Canadian Involvement in Open Access, on the SLAIS 534 wiki.
[Disclosure: Dean mentions me as one of the prominent Canadians worth mentioning. Thanks, Dean!]
Graduates of the University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies should be well grounded in open access!
[Disclosure: Dean mentions me as one of the prominent Canadians worth mentioning. Thanks, Dean!]
Graduates of the University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival and Information Studies should be well grounded in open access!
Sunday, April 13, 2008
EBSCO's free database: GreenFILE
Kudos to EBSCO for creating and sharing a free, fulltext database called GreenFILE.
Description, from the EBSCO Press Release:
GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. The database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.
What a beautiful illustration that there are Roles for the Aggregators in the process of Transitioning to Open Access.
Thanks, EBSCO!
Description, from the EBSCO Press Release:
GreenFILE indexes scholarly and general interest titles, as well as government documents and reports. This resource offers a unique perspective on the positive and negative ways humans affect the environment. Drawing on the connection between the environment and disciplines such as agriculture, education, law, health and technology, GreenFILE serves as an informative resource for anyone concerned about the issues facing our planet. The database contains nearly 300,000 records, full text for selected titles and searchable cited references for more than 200 titles as well.
What a beautiful illustration that there are Roles for the Aggregators in the process of Transitioning to Open Access.
Thanks, EBSCO!
Open Notebook Science: Open Access, and Beyond
Jean-Claude Bradley discusses Open Notebook Science and implications for librarians, in a presentation prepared for my Issues in Scholarly Communications and Publishing class.
CISTI's Glen Newton calls Bradley's presentation a must-read for science librarians. I agree!
The world wide web opens up not only all the potential of open access - an unprecedented public good - but much more, besides.
Bradley and colleagues are recording all steps of experiments on blogs and wikis, developing automated approaches to standardizing metadata to describe metadata for steps in the research process, collaboratively sharing molecules wikipedia-style on Chemspider. Bradley discusses a future where much science progresses through machine-to-machine communications.
This is the future of scholarship, and this is what our library leaders need to learn about, now.
CISTI's Glen Newton calls Bradley's presentation a must-read for science librarians. I agree!
The world wide web opens up not only all the potential of open access - an unprecedented public good - but much more, besides.
Bradley and colleagues are recording all steps of experiments on blogs and wikis, developing automated approaches to standardizing metadata to describe metadata for steps in the research process, collaboratively sharing molecules wikipedia-style on Chemspider. Bradley discusses a future where much science progresses through machine-to-machine communications.
This is the future of scholarship, and this is what our library leaders need to learn about, now.
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Issues in Scholarly Communications Class
Issues in Scholarly Communications, a course I developed and taught for the University of British Columbia's School of Library, Archival, and Information Studies this term, is now over (alas, as I have very much enjoyed this course).
I am very proud of the work of all of my students, much of which can be found in the course practice journal, Topics in Scholarly Communications.
Many thanks to everyone who helped with the class, including in-person and distance speakers. Links to many of the presentations can be found from the Course Blog, and a few are posted in E-LIS as well. Notes from Joy Kirchner and Gwen Bird's presentations can be found on the course wiki.
Harder to capture is the contribution of Peter Suber, who joined the class for a distance question and answer session. As usual, Peter was able to answer any question in considerable depth, and provide detailed background information. Thanks, Peter!
What's next for me for teaching:
I'm working on a book on scholarly communications for Chandos, which would be useful for librarians at any level needing to quickly get up to speed in this area; this could also be used as a textbook for this course.
This May & June I'm teaching a one-credit course on open access at SLAIS.
This fall I'm co-teaching a course on Information Policy at SLAIS, with Devon Greyson of Social Justice Librarian.
I am very proud of the work of all of my students, much of which can be found in the course practice journal, Topics in Scholarly Communications.
Many thanks to everyone who helped with the class, including in-person and distance speakers. Links to many of the presentations can be found from the Course Blog, and a few are posted in E-LIS as well. Notes from Joy Kirchner and Gwen Bird's presentations can be found on the course wiki.
Harder to capture is the contribution of Peter Suber, who joined the class for a distance question and answer session. As usual, Peter was able to answer any question in considerable depth, and provide detailed background information. Thanks, Peter!
What's next for me for teaching:
I'm working on a book on scholarly communications for Chandos, which would be useful for librarians at any level needing to quickly get up to speed in this area; this could also be used as a textbook for this course.
This May & June I'm teaching a one-credit course on open access at SLAIS.
This fall I'm co-teaching a course on Information Policy at SLAIS, with Devon Greyson of Social Justice Librarian.
Jumpstarting the Public Sphere: Information Policy in the 21st Century
Mark your calendars! October 23 - 25, 2008, in Vancouver, British Columbia, for the following events:
Oct. 23 (evening) & 24 (all day): Jumpstarting the Public Sphere: Information Policy in the 21st Century. Vancouver Public Library. Registration Fee? You can afford it!
Saturday, Oct. 25: Media Democracy day. Vancouver Public Library. Free. Speakers & Media Fair.
Stay tuned for updates on the Information Policy Blog.
For more on gatherings of the Commons, please today's Open Access News, where Peter Suber writes notes about and links to two conferences:
Amsterdam: Economics of the Commons: Strategies for Sustainable Access and Creative Reuse of Sounds and Images Online
Canberra, Australia: Foundations of Open: Technological and Digital Knowledge, Local 2020 Summit
Oct. 23 (evening) & 24 (all day): Jumpstarting the Public Sphere: Information Policy in the 21st Century. Vancouver Public Library. Registration Fee? You can afford it!
Saturday, Oct. 25: Media Democracy day. Vancouver Public Library. Free. Speakers & Media Fair.
Stay tuned for updates on the Information Policy Blog.
For more on gatherings of the Commons, please today's Open Access News, where Peter Suber writes notes about and links to two conferences:
Amsterdam: Economics of the Commons: Strategies for Sustainable Access and Creative Reuse of Sounds and Images Online
Canberra, Australia: Foundations of Open: Technological and Digital Knowledge, Local 2020 Summit
Friday, April 11, 2008
Dean Giustini on Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement
Dean Giustini has just blogged the first part of a series on Canadian involvement in the open access movement, Open Access Part I - Early Canadian Involvement to 1999, on the Open Medicine Blog.
This covers early Canadian leadership in the open access movement, from 1991 when Jean-Claude Guédon of the Université de Montréal founded Surfaces, to the work of Leslie Chan of Bioline International and Stevan Harnad.
Dean says he'll deal with the period 1999-2008 in part II.
Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News
This post is part of the Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement Series.
This covers early Canadian leadership in the open access movement, from 1991 when Jean-Claude Guédon of the Université de Montréal founded Surfaces, to the work of Leslie Chan of Bioline International and Stevan Harnad.
Dean says he'll deal with the period 1999-2008 in part II.
Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News
This post is part of the Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement Series.
Wednesday, April 09, 2008
From the CLA Task Force on Open Access
Just self-archived: Waller, Andrew and Morrison, Heather (2008) From the CLA Task Force on Open Access. Feliciter 54(2):50.
Abstract
In 2006, the Canadian Library Association created a Task Force on Open Access, to develop a policy on open access to CLA's own publications, and develop a Position Statement on Open Access for Canada's libraries. CLA now has a strong open access policy for CLA publications, and a Position Statement on OA for Canadian libraries has been drafted. This brief article is an updated on the work of the CLA Task Force on Open Access (OA) and the activity of the Canadian Library Association regarding Open Access.
Abstract
In 2006, the Canadian Library Association created a Task Force on Open Access, to develop a policy on open access to CLA's own publications, and develop a Position Statement on Open Access for Canada's libraries. CLA now has a strong open access policy for CLA publications, and a Position Statement on OA for Canadian libraries has been drafted. This brief article is an updated on the work of the CLA Task Force on Open Access (OA) and the activity of the Canadian Library Association regarding Open Access.
Responses to Library and Archives Canada's Canadian Digital Information Strategy
Responses to the Canadian Digital Information Strategy consultation are now online.
Thanks to Tracey on datalibre.ca
Thanks to Tracey on datalibre.ca
Monday, April 07, 2008
A Celebration of Research and Scholarship at Kwantlen University-College
Last week it was my very great pleasure to present at, and attend, A Celebration of Research and Scholarship at Kwantlen University College in Surrey, British Columbia.
My own presentation was on Open Access Publishing. I covered the basics, but clearly many of those I was speaking to are not only the converted, they are the leaders!
Ranjini Mendis, my co-presenter, merits recognition as one of the keys to Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement, for her pioneering work co-establishing (with John Willinsky) the first open access, fully online international journal on postcolonial studies to come out of Canada,
Postcolonial Text.
Balbir Gurm and Alice Macpherson also deserve recognition for their development of the open access journal, Transformative Dialogues, including developing their own unique approach to online journal software.
This was a fascinating event for me, and not only because of the keen interest in open access publishing.
As Canada's community colleges grow and evolve into university colleges and universities, it seems that they are bringing the close connection with the community along with them. It may be that a new model is evolving, one that has the flexibility to allow the academic scholar to follow a traditional path of research, or to enter into community-based research. Gira Bhatt spoke about just such an experience in her talk, "The Process of Establishing Trust: Partnering with the South Asian Community".
Gira works with community groups, many of whom have never been close before but are now coming together to work collaboratively for the good of their community. The academic - Gira, and Kwantlen, too - are seen as an important neutral central point to help the community to come together. Thus, paradoxically, the academic in this situation can be both neutral, and activist.
This is the potential of Public Knowledge, as outline by John Willinsky and others. Public Knowledge is about more than software.
My own presentation was on Open Access Publishing. I covered the basics, but clearly many of those I was speaking to are not only the converted, they are the leaders!
Ranjini Mendis, my co-presenter, merits recognition as one of the keys to Canadian Leadership in the Open Access Movement, for her pioneering work co-establishing (with John Willinsky) the first open access, fully online international journal on postcolonial studies to come out of Canada,
Postcolonial Text.
Balbir Gurm and Alice Macpherson also deserve recognition for their development of the open access journal, Transformative Dialogues, including developing their own unique approach to online journal software.
This was a fascinating event for me, and not only because of the keen interest in open access publishing.
As Canada's community colleges grow and evolve into university colleges and universities, it seems that they are bringing the close connection with the community along with them. It may be that a new model is evolving, one that has the flexibility to allow the academic scholar to follow a traditional path of research, or to enter into community-based research. Gira Bhatt spoke about just such an experience in her talk, "The Process of Establishing Trust: Partnering with the South Asian Community".
Gira works with community groups, many of whom have never been close before but are now coming together to work collaboratively for the good of their community. The academic - Gira, and Kwantlen, too - are seen as an important neutral central point to help the community to come together. Thus, paradoxically, the academic in this situation can be both neutral, and activist.
This is the potential of Public Knowledge, as outline by John Willinsky and others. Public Knowledge is about more than software.
Glen Newton suggests an additional criterion to the definition of open access
Glen Newton on ZZZOOT suggests an additional criterion to the definition of open access:
Open Access must include access by machines:
* At minimum one must allow crawls of the site/content or (to reduce the impact of badly configured crawlers) create a compressed XML file containing all metadata and either content, or direct links to content and make it available for download (and if bandwidth is still an issue put it on a P2P network like BitTorrent).
* Preferable is to offer some kind of API (OTMI) or protocol (OAI-PMH) to get at content and metadata and citations.
* Better is to offer access to the XML of the articles in addition to the PDF and/or HTML; if the XML actually has some semantic content, then we are approaching the optimum.
The end goal is to support and encourage text mining and analysis of the full-text (preferably semantically rich XML), metadata and citations to allow literature-based exploration and discovery in support of the scientific research process.
Comment: hear, hear!! Open Access is about more than incremental steps. The world wide web is a fabulous gift, that lets us do a very great deal more than we ever could before. We have serious issues to tackle, in this world of ours; issues like figuring out a solution to global warming, and how to live together in peace. We need to figure out how to speed up our learning - as this true open access can do - and we don't have a moment to waste.
Open Access must include access by machines:
* At minimum one must allow crawls of the site/content or (to reduce the impact of badly configured crawlers) create a compressed XML file containing all metadata and either content, or direct links to content and make it available for download (and if bandwidth is still an issue put it on a P2P network like BitTorrent).
* Preferable is to offer some kind of API (OTMI) or protocol (OAI-PMH) to get at content and metadata and citations.
* Better is to offer access to the XML of the articles in addition to the PDF and/or HTML; if the XML actually has some semantic content, then we are approaching the optimum.
The end goal is to support and encourage text mining and analysis of the full-text (preferably semantically rich XML), metadata and citations to allow literature-based exploration and discovery in support of the scientific research process.
Comment: hear, hear!! Open Access is about more than incremental steps. The world wide web is a fabulous gift, that lets us do a very great deal more than we ever could before. We have serious issues to tackle, in this world of ours; issues like figuring out a solution to global warming, and how to live together in peace. We need to figure out how to speed up our learning - as this true open access can do - and we don't have a moment to waste.
More baseline data from PubMed
Thanks to Jim Till on Be Openly Accessible or Be Obscure for More (and better!) Baseline Data from PubMed.
Jim's data, dated April 6, 2008 - the day before the NIH new public access requirement took effect:
Some other data about the percentage of freely-accessible articles, obtained on the same day using the same key words:
Published within the last 2 years: 44366/144166=31%
Published within the last 1 year: 12241/67486=18%
Published within the last 180 days: 3894/30602=13%
Published within the last 90 days: 1012/11947=8%
Published within the last 60 days: 454/6475=7%
Published within the last 30 days: 143/2267=6%
As Jim points out, when the effects of the NIH mandate begin to be seen, these percentages are expected to rise dramatically!
What a great way to kick off OA Week, in recognition of the NIH mandate policy.
This post is part of the Dramatic Growth of Open Access Series.
Jim's data, dated April 6, 2008 - the day before the NIH new public access requirement took effect:
Some other data about the percentage of freely-accessible articles, obtained on the same day using the same key words:
Published within the last 2 years: 44366/144166=31%
Published within the last 1 year: 12241/67486=18%
Published within the last 180 days: 3894/30602=13%
Published within the last 90 days: 1012/11947=8%
Published within the last 60 days: 454/6475=7%
Published within the last 30 days: 143/2267=6%
As Jim points out, when the effects of the NIH mandate begin to be seen, these percentages are expected to rise dramatically!
What a great way to kick off OA Week, in recognition of the NIH mandate policy.
This post is part of the Dramatic Growth of Open Access Series.
Sunday, April 06, 2008
European Universities Association (EUA) urges universities to develop clear strategies to advance open access
The open access recommendations developed by the EUA Working Group on Open Access and endorsed by EUA Council in their spring meeting this year at the University of Barcelona, have now been published in the European Universities Association Newsletter, March 4, 2008. Kudos especially to Lesley Wilson, Secretary General of the EUA, and Sijbolt Noorda, chair of the Working Group on Open Access. Thanks to Peter Suber on Open Access News.
The basic approach is one of setting up institutional repositories or sharing of repositories, at every university.
The basic policy: "University institutional policies should require that their researchers deposit (self archive) their scientific publications in their institutional repository upon acceptance for publication. Permissible embargoes should apply only to the date of open access provision and not the date of deposit".
Comment: this is an excellent model for a policy. The only missing element, from my perspective, is the setting of a maximum embargo period. My suggestion is a maximum 6 months' embargo period, similar to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research policy, with a plan for review in the future with a view to decreasing the embargo period. The purpose of the embargo period is to provide publishers with a window of opportunity to adjust to an open access environment.
As a strong supporter of a fully open access scholarly communications system, including full open access publishing, and of disciplinary open access archives such as PubMedCentral, arXiv, RePEC, and E-LIS, it is my opinion that this green or self-archiving requirement policy is the optimum approach for open access policy. An article published in an open access journal can be deposited in a university repository. An article deposited in an institutional repository can also be deposited in a disciplinary repository. If the key journal for a particular faculty is not yet open access, the faculty member has the flexibility needed to publish in their preferred venue, while still meeting the requirements of their university.
Two key elements of this policy to point out: open access is required, not requested. Experience has shown that merely requesting open access simply does not work. Researchers are required to deposit immediately, while open access can be delayed or embargoed if necessary. This is a needed direction for the busy researcher; immediate deposit can be easily worked into one's workflow, keeping the time and attention busy researchers need to devote to fulfilling this requirement to the minimum necessary.
The EUA clearly plans to continue a leadership role in making results of research produced at European Universities open access, both in terms of policy and vision, and in exploring practical means of support such as finding ways to help authors pay article processing fees.
Thanks for the alert to Bernard Rentier, the blogging Rector of the Université de Liège, via Stevan Harnad on the American Scientist Open Access Forum.
The basic approach is one of setting up institutional repositories or sharing of repositories, at every university.
The basic policy: "University institutional policies should require that their researchers deposit (self archive) their scientific publications in their institutional repository upon acceptance for publication. Permissible embargoes should apply only to the date of open access provision and not the date of deposit".
Comment: this is an excellent model for a policy. The only missing element, from my perspective, is the setting of a maximum embargo period. My suggestion is a maximum 6 months' embargo period, similar to the Canadian Institutes of Health Research policy, with a plan for review in the future with a view to decreasing the embargo period. The purpose of the embargo period is to provide publishers with a window of opportunity to adjust to an open access environment.
As a strong supporter of a fully open access scholarly communications system, including full open access publishing, and of disciplinary open access archives such as PubMedCentral, arXiv, RePEC, and E-LIS, it is my opinion that this green or self-archiving requirement policy is the optimum approach for open access policy. An article published in an open access journal can be deposited in a university repository. An article deposited in an institutional repository can also be deposited in a disciplinary repository. If the key journal for a particular faculty is not yet open access, the faculty member has the flexibility needed to publish in their preferred venue, while still meeting the requirements of their university.
Two key elements of this policy to point out: open access is required, not requested. Experience has shown that merely requesting open access simply does not work. Researchers are required to deposit immediately, while open access can be delayed or embargoed if necessary. This is a needed direction for the busy researcher; immediate deposit can be easily worked into one's workflow, keeping the time and attention busy researchers need to devote to fulfilling this requirement to the minimum necessary.
The EUA clearly plans to continue a leadership role in making results of research produced at European Universities open access, both in terms of policy and vision, and in exploring practical means of support such as finding ways to help authors pay article processing fees.
Thanks for the alert to Bernard Rentier, the blogging Rector of the Université de Liège, via Stevan Harnad on the American Scientist Open Access Forum.
Thursday, April 03, 2008
The library as publisher: an emerging norm
Wonderful news!
According to a recent study of the Association of Research Libraries authored by Karla Hahn, Director of the ARL Office of Scholarly Communications, at least 44% of 80 ARL libraries surveyed are involved in publishing, and another 21% are planning to get involved. That's 65% of the libraries surveyed (in numeric terms, 52 libraries).
This is, of course, an understatement of library involvement in publishing, as one of the criteria for ARL membership is a library's size. This means that the smaller Simon Fraser University Library, one of the partners in the Public Knowledge Project and home to close to a hundred journals, is not included in this survey.
With this support from libraries, the Dramatic Growth of Open Access is sure to continue!
For details and links, see Peter Suber's post on Open Access News.
This involvement of libraries in publishing is a key to Transitioning to Open Access
According to a recent study of the Association of Research Libraries authored by Karla Hahn, Director of the ARL Office of Scholarly Communications, at least 44% of 80 ARL libraries surveyed are involved in publishing, and another 21% are planning to get involved. That's 65% of the libraries surveyed (in numeric terms, 52 libraries).
This is, of course, an understatement of library involvement in publishing, as one of the criteria for ARL membership is a library's size. This means that the smaller Simon Fraser University Library, one of the partners in the Public Knowledge Project and home to close to a hundred journals, is not included in this survey.
With this support from libraries, the Dramatic Growth of Open Access is sure to continue!
For details and links, see Peter Suber's post on Open Access News.
This involvement of libraries in publishing is a key to Transitioning to Open Access
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
JOVE: the Journal of Visualized Experiments
JOVE: the Journal of Visualized Experiments is a new open access video journal for biological research. This shows what the internet is for!
Thanks to Gilbert Bede.
Thanks to Gilbert Bede.