Posts Tagged ‘Open Access’
Open Access and pseudo-science journals
Unfortunately, there is a negative effect of the widely success of the Open Access movement, the emergence of pseudo journals.
Jeffrey Beall maintains a list of these predatory publishers that “ exist only to make money off the author processing charges that are billed to authors upon acceptance of their scientific manuscripts“…
This list is available on:
http://scholarlyoa.com/2012/12/06/bealls-list-of-predatory-publishers-2013/
Open access could prevent rejection of good science
Steve Miron, from Wiley, interviewed by Sian Harris:
What role does open access play in research publishing?
It’s clear that open access (OA) is becoming a big trend. However, I see that for the foreseeable future we’ll live in a mixed economy with green OA, gold OA, subscription and approaches that have not been invented yet. It is fun and exciting, with many experiments by publishers. (…)
There has been some great communication between the research community, publishers and policy makers in developing OA policy. It has been done in an enlightened, positive way but I think there’ll be some serious issues that still need to be considered. (…)
How might relationships between researchers and publishers be improved?
We work hard to nurture and maintain a positive relationship with researchers and libraries. No relationship is without some tension or disagreement but we do actively listen to authors, whether what they say is positive or negative.
(…)
We get around 450,000 article submissions a year and publish about a third of them. Some good science is not being published because the materials budgets do not keep pace with R&D spend. I hope as funded OA becomes more part of the scholarly landscape these tensions are addressed and that budgets for publications will be more aligned with the R&D spend.
http://www.researchinformation.info/features/feature.php?feature_id=393
PLOS: ten years and a new look
Announcement from the reputed PLOS:
On the eve of our tenth anniversary, we’re pleased to announce that the redesign of all PLOS journals is now live. The three goals of this initiative were to:
- Ensure that readers can quickly assess the relevance and importance of an article through a figure browser and highly visible Article-Level Metrics
- Improve site navigation to help users discover content more easily
- Launch a flexible platform from which to build out future innovations
This refresh offers users more effective ways to access and read content, updates the overall appearance of the sites and harmonizes them with our new PLOS look announced earlier this year.
Read further on:
Medical Cases in literature : an open database
Open access (OA) publisher BioMed Central has launched a new semantically-enriched search tool, Cases Database, which aims to enhance the discovery, filtering and aggregation of medical case reports from many journals. OA to journal articles published under Creative Commons licences, which permit text mining, enable the literature to be reused as a resource for scientific discovery
More than 11,000 cases from 100 different journals are reportedly available to be freely searched with Cases Database.
Cases Database uses text mining and medical term recognition to filter peer reviewed medical case reports and provide a semantically enriched search experience. The database offers structured search and filtering by condition, symptom, intervention, pathogen, patient demographic and many other data fields, allowing fast identification of relevant case reports to support clinical practice and research. Registered users can save cases, set up e-mail alerts tonew cases matching their search terms, and export their results. Cases Database will be free to access and is expected to be of particular interest to practicing clinicians, researchers, lecturers, drug regulators, patients, students and authors.
Announcement:
http://blogs.biomedcentral.com/bmcblog/2012/12/10/embrace-information-overload-with-cases-database/
Open Access: still in progress (Research Information)
2 articles in the latest issue of Research Information show that OA is still growing but also needs to improve some processes.
Some findings from a survey made by Wiley:
- 79 % of surveyed authors see open access as more prevalent in their discipline than it was three years ago
- Reasons that authors gave for not yet having published under an open-access model included a lack of high profile open-access journals (48 per cent), lack of funding (44 per cent) and concerns about quality (34 per cent). Authors said they would publish in an open-access journal if it had a high impact factor, if it were well regarded and if it had a rigorous peer-review process.
- The highest proportion of open-access authors came from a medical background (28 per cent), closely followed by biological sciences (24 per cent)
and a discussion around the new model of publication, the CC-BY license:
The CC-BY licence condition, defined by Creative Commons, allows modification and reuse of content, including commercially, provided that the original author is properly attributed. (…) However, there are concerns with the implications of the licence. Because CC-BY allows for commercial reuse of content it could theoretically be published again, behind a paywall, which might seem to contradict some of the aims of open access. And there may be some uses that researchers are uncomfortable with. For example, medical researchers might be unhappy with parts of their papers being used to promote a particular drug…
OA gains ground with authors, says study. Research Information, 30 october 2012. Available from: http://www.researchinformation.info/news/news_story.php?news_id=1041
More publishers move towards CC-BY licence for OA articles. Research Information, 15 november 2012. Available from: http://www.researchinformation.info/news/news_story.php?news_id=1047
Open Access: latest figures
According a white paper published by Springer (the owner of BioMedCentral):
- Only 12% of OA articles are paid directly by Authors
- In 2010, 1.4 millions scholarly journals were published under OA
- In July 2012, DOAJ has reached 8,000 titles
- The BASE source indexes 36 million open access documents
Open access – broad readership, high impact. White paper, Springer, 2012. 6 p. Available online from: http://springer.r.delivery.net/r/r?2.1.Ee.2Tp.1jgMgt.C4E8ug..N.Y18y.3yN4.bW89MQ%5f%5fDCXcFQL0
1 of 3 papers will be published in open access by 2020
Announcing a future European PubMed Central, the European Science Foundation calls sicentific organisation to work together to support the development of Open Access in Europe
Opinion: Is open-access publishing the wave of the future?
“Yes, definitely. It solves too many problems with the existing ecosystem not to be fairly inevitable in at least some imaginable time frame“
Dupuis, John. Whither science publishing. Confessions of a Science Librarian, September 5, 2012. Available from:
http://scienceblogs.com/confessions/2012/09/05/whither-science-publishing/
STM journals: the end of Big Deal is approaching!
A very interesting annual report by Allen Press shows how some new trends on the american publishing industry could definitely change the business models of Big STM publishers…
Some findings:
“Budget cuts have become inevitable, forcing publishers to restrategize and libraries to make even tougher purchasing decisions. (…)
2012 journal prices increased but not at the levels seen in prior years… (…)
Pressure on Publishers:
- Publishers are also faced with the ongoing erosion of their subscription bases. Some institutions simply cannot make ends meet when it comes to their shrinking or flat budgets…
- Publishers are also struggling to get the advertising dollars they once did to help financially support their publications. (…) Online advertising has not proved to bring in revenue equitable to that of its print counterpart
- Increasing competition, especially from new Open Access and mega journals, has added to the struggle of publishers as well
Despite implementing cost-cutting actions, many libraries continue to struggle to keep up with increasing serials pricing. Libraries do not have the resources to continue to exist in a world of ever-increasing prices, nor can publishers survive without positive cash flow. (…)
The results indicated that in order to achieve budget goals, 78% of librarian respondents will likely cut print
journals for the next fiscal year and 86% of librarian respondents are likely to move print plus online subscriptions to online only. In 2010, approximately 27% of publishers surveyed reported a decline in their print business greater than 10%. (…)
Mobile access:
Publishers need to be responding to the surge of such technology by making their content readily available on mobile devices. (…) Mobile technology allows library customers to connect to their local library’s virtual catalog for audiobooks and eBooks. Scientific journal content is also becoming more available with mobile options such as SciVerse Mobile from Elsevier and EBSCOhost Mobile from EBSCO Publishing. Opportunities to have information anytime and anywhere are constantly growing. (…)
We are now in the middle of a new transition where users demand the ability to consume content anywhere and at all times. Online access is a necessity rather than a novelty or add-on. Content is still key, but it is moving mobile. Libraries, publishers, and users can all benefit, but only if pricing becomes sustainable. (…)
New models suggestion:
We live in a time where library patrons want immediate access to even more journal content, and libraries are searching for ways to meet these demands with even tighter budgets. Thus, pay-per-view (PPV) or transactional access may be the way of the future for some as an alternative to Big Deals. (…) It’s not seen as a replacement, but rather as a supplement to other existing models. Traditional subscriptions still make sense and are the most cost-effective choice for high-usage title (…)
Another emerging option is the read-only short-term loan or article rental. It has a low cost and offers 24-hour access; however, it is not available for download or print, and each use equals another payment… (…)
The End of Big Deal:
In fact, business models have changed tremendously since the arrival of consortial purchasing and the Big Deal. Now, however, libraries are looking for different ways to meet user demands for information in the digital realm. As current methods of selling content become outdated, it may be necessary for publishers to reevaluate their business models(…) …, analysts are suggesting that the end of the Big Deal is approaching.
Open Access:
Librarians and researchers are pushing for a move toward Open Access (OA) because of ever-increasing prices, and it is has become a practical channel for distributing scholarly information. But publishers believe their current business models are a must to maintain the quality of their products, and they have concerns about how to develop a sustainable business model to support OA. (…)
Solution: improve the content
With Big Deals and smaller publishers struggling to compete, the focus should be on content. (…) Researchers read articles, not journals. Every article needs to be significant and contribute to driving usage of your journal.
Read the full report at:
Tillery, Kodi. 2012 study of subscription prices for scholarly society journals: society journals pricing trends and industry overview. White paper, Allen Press, 2012. 19 p. Available for free from: http://allenpress.com/system/files/pdfs/library/2012_AP_JPS.pdf
95% of librarians believe in OA future
According a study provided by an OA european publisher.
“The survey revealed high levels of awareness of OA – 95% of the respondents stated they were very or quite familiar with the OA model. Librarians highlight a number of benefits of OA publishing models:
- Ease of access to content
- Increased visibility, usage and impact for authors
- Improved sharing and collaboration
- Improved public engagement with research
- Broad benefits for society of improved access to research
- Improved return on investment for funders of research
Additionally:
- 78% of respondents support OA publishing, with only 5.5% stating they oppose the model.
- 95% believe OA is already delivering benefits, or will do in the future.
Librarians did express some concern about OA publishing models. In particular that the charges levied by publishers would create a barrier for authors with limited access to funding, while opening up the potential for ‘vanity’ publishing for those with funds.”
The full article:
Skelton, Val. How OA is changing the role of librarians, Information Today Europe, 5th of July 2012, Available from: http://www.infotoday.eu/Articles/Editorial/Featured-Articles/How-OA-is-changing-the-role-of-librarians-83586.aspx [Accessed 9th July 2012]
