Here is a summary of some of the latest opportunities for scientists to share work online:
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Open Access proposal at Harvard
From The Chronical of Higher Education via Patty Gaspari-Bridges, Head of the Science Libraries, Princeton University:
February 12, 2008
"Harvard Faculty Adopts Open-Access Requirement
Harvard University’s faculty this evening adopted a policy that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online. Peter Suber, an open-access activist with Public Knowledge, a nonprofit group in Washington, said on his blog that the new policy makes Harvard the first university in the United States to mandate open access to its faculty members’ research publications. Stuart M. Shieber, a professor of computer science at Harvard, who proposed the policy to the faculty, said after the vote in a news release that the decision ‘should be a very powerful message to the academic community that we want and should have more control over how our work is used and disseminated.’ The new policy will allow faculty members to request a waiver, but otherwise they must provide an electronic form of the article to the provost’s office, which will place it in an online repository. The policy will allow Harvard authors to publish in any journal that permits posting online after publication. According to Mr.Suber, about two-thirds of pay-access journals allow such posting in online repositories. –Lila Guterman ‘
copyright 2008 CHE (Chronicle of Higher Education)
Cal (Berkeley) to pay for authors to publish in Open Access journals
"enews feature: Berkeley steps forward with bold initiative to pay authors’ open-access charges
It’s one thing to say you support open-access publishing. It’s another to provide authors with a pot of money to actually pay for it. That’s what’s happening at the University of California Berkeley. In January, the university launched the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative, a pilot program co-sponsored by the University Librarian and the Vice Chancellor for Research to cover publication charges for open-access journals… "
From SPARC enews, May, 2008
To read more, or subscribe to the SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) newsletter: http://www.arl.org/sparc/index.shtml
Environmental Justice — new journal
"Mary Ann Liebert brings out premier issue of Environmental Justice – 15 May 2008
Publisher Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., US, has announced the launch of a new journal – Environmental Justice. Dr. Sylvia Hood Washington of the University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal, the premier issue of which is available for free online at www.liebertpub.com/env.
A quarterly publication, Environmental Justice seeks to be the central forum for the research, debate, and discussion of the equitable treatment and involvement of all people, especially minority and low-income populations, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. The journal aims to provide an intellectual forum that presents a balanced and objective assessment of environmental inequalities locally, nationally, and globally.
Environmental Justice explores the adverse and disparate environmental burden impacting marginalized populations and draws upon the expertise and perspectives of all parties involved in environmental justice struggles: communities, industry, academia, government, and nonprofit organisations. Legal challenges and lawsuits to ensure prevention of harmful policies, projects, and developments are within its purview. Also, the journal covers issues of compliance and enforcement, activism, and corrective actions."
Source: Knowledgespeak Newsletter
Canada’s National Research Council Sci-Tech article database
Each article costs C$12, plus publisher fees and applicable taxes. Users see the full and exact cost of items added to their shopping carts. Open access articles are available free of any charges. Articles from NRC-CISTI’s electronic collection (indicated with a green mouse symbol) are available for viewing immediately. Articles in the print collection (indicated with a red flying envelope symbol) must first be scanned, and users receive a link by e-mail when the article is ready to be viewed and printed. Access to all articles is for one view, one print. Access begins when the link is opened and ends when the link is closed. Users may not save the document to their desktop.
NRC-CISTI is planning to launch a free Discover Alerts service later in the year. This service will allow users to register to receive electronic notification of new articles based on search criteria or journal title. The alerts will be delivered either via e-mail or RSS feeds."
This will be a service to keep in mind particularly when one is no longer connected to a university or company which provides easy and free document delivery. While one is at Princeton University, do utilize our Document Delivery /Interlibrary Loan service — a resource of which we are proud. Of course, an individual on his own should have access through a public library. The price of this new service from CISTI seems very reasonable.
Journal of Virtual Worlds Research
Announcing the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research |
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The Journal of Virtual Worlds Research is a online, open access, peer-reviewed, transdisciplinary, academic journal, which engages established and emerging scholars from anywhere in the world. Web site: http://jvwr.org
Open Calls for Papers: |
From
Gerry McKiernan, Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian, Iowa State University Library
Nature.com wins ‘Oscars of the Internet’
Nature Publishing Group has won a "Webby" for the "Best Science Website" for 2008.
Besides searching access to all of their journals, their website features the following:
"Through Nature.com, users can access news and features from Nature News and visit Naturejobs, NPG’s careers information and science recruitment website. NPG launched Connotea, the document tagging and social bookmarking web site in 2003. Nature Network, NPG’s social networking service connects scientists at a global and local level. The success of the weekly Nature Podcast has led to the construction of NPG’s own in-house podcast studio. The site also hosts a number of NPG blogs, the preprint service Nature Precedings, and country-focussed portals such as Nature China and Nature India."
For more details about Nature.com and the Webbies, here is the item in Knowledgespeak Newsletter.
PubMed adding related review articles to specific articles
News from the National Library of Medicine, from "NLM Technical Bulletin", May-June, 2008, No. 362:
Soon we are likely to encounter — in PubMed’s "AbstractPlus" format — related review articles listed by decreasing relevancy, in a box at the lower right. Above at the right are related references.
For an illustration, see:
*NLM Technical Bulletin, May-Jun 2008, Related Reviews Coming to AbstractPlus in PubMed
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/pubs/techbull/mj08/mj08_related_reviews.html
PubMedCentral — Open Access journals increasing
"40 new journals have been added to PubMedCentral in the last 60
days! Of these, 22 or more than half contribute content immediately,
and an additional 6 make content available within the NIH 12-month
timeline, for a total of 70% of these new journals facilitating
compliance with the NIH policy."
From Heather Morrison, MLIS
"The Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics"
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
Via Patty Gaspari-Bridges, Head of Science Libraries
Open Access Directory
Source: Patty Gaspari-Bridges & ScholComm, a listserv of the American Library Association