Open Access Status of Journal Articles from ERC…

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Open Access Status of Journal Articles from ERC Funded Projects :

“The main objective of this analysis is to estimate the extent to which journal articles from ERC funded projects are available in an open access.

A list of 630 journal articles reported in 88 mid-term project reports formed the basis of this analysis. A web-based search to find openly accessible versions of these articles was undertaken from a computer network with no subscription linked to it. Articles were classified as available in open access if the web-based search yielded a copy of the journal article, an author personal copy or a pre-print.

The results show that 62 % of journal articles from ERC funded projects are available in open access. The share of articles in open access varies across research domains. It is close to 70 % in Life Sciences, 65 % in Physical Sciences and Engineering and nearer 50 % in Social Sciences and Humanities. A comparison with the data on open access status provided by the grant holders in their mid-term reports shows that self-reporting leads to an underestimation of the proportion of open access articles.

The potential policy implications of the results are highlighted in the last section of the report. They include among others, the idea of using soft measures to further encourage open access and seeking the cooperation of the libraries of organisations hosting ERC grantees to ensure that the ERC’s Open Access policy is well aligned with institutional policies and practices and does not place an undue burden on researchers.”

URL : http://erc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/document/file/open_access_study_status_journal_articles_ERC_funded_projects.pdf

Open access versus subscription journals: a comparison of scientific impact

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Authors : Bo-Christer Björk, David Solomon

Background

In the past few years there has been an ongoing debate as to whether the proliferation of open access (OA) publishing would damage the peer review system and put the quality of scientific journal publishing at risk.

Our aim was to inform this debate by comparing the scientific impact of OA journals with subscription journals, controlling for journal age, the country of the publisher, discipline and (for OA publishers) their business model.

Methods

The 2-year impact factors (the average number of citations to the articles in a journal) were used as a proxy for scientific impact. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) was used to identify OA journals as well as their business model.

Journal age and discipline were obtained from the Ulrich’s periodicals directory. Comparisons were performed on the journal level as well as on the article level where the results were weighted by the number of articles published in a journal.

A total of 610 OA journals were compared with 7,609 subscription journals using Web of Science citation data while an overlapping set of 1,327 OA journals were compared with 11,124 subscription journals using Scopus data.

Results

Overall, average citation rates, both unweighted and weighted for the number of articles per journal, were about 30% higher for subscription journals. However, after controlling for discipline (medicine and health versus other), age of the journal (three time periods) and the location of the publisher (four largest publishing countries versus other countries) the differences largely disappeared in most subcategories except for journals that had been launched prior to 1996.

OA journals that fund publishing with article processing charges (APCs) are on average cited more than other OA journals. In medicine and health, OA journals founded in the last 10 years are receiving about as many citations as subscription journals launched during the same period.

Conclusions

Our results indicate that OA journals indexed in Web of Science and/or Scopus are approaching the same scientific impact and quality as subscription journals, particularly in biomedicine and for journals funded by article processing charges.

URL : http://www.biomedcentral.com/1741-7015/10/73

Software systems for increasing availability of scientific research…

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Software systems for increasing availability of scientific-research outputs :

“This paper describes the basic approaches for publishing scientic-research outputs using modern ICT technologies and web applications such as institutional repositories, the NDLTD, and CRIS. Also, the CRIS which has been developed at the University of Novi Sad is described. That system unies the mentioned approaches and it is compatible with all of them.”

URL : http://www.dmi.rs/NSJOM/Papers/42_1/NSJOM_42_1_037_048.pdf

Google Scholar Metrics an unreliable tool for assessing…

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Google Scholar Metrics: an unreliable tool for assessing scientific journals :

“We introduce Google Scholar Metrics (GSM), a new bibliometric product of Google that aims at providing the H-index for scientific journals and other information sources. We conduct a critical review of GSM showing its main characteristics and possibilities as a tool for scientific evaluation. We discuss its coverage along with the inclusion of repositories, bibliographic control, and its options for browsing and searching. We conclude that, despite Google Scholar’s value as a source for scien- tific assessment, GSM is an immature product with many shortcomings, and therefore we advise against its use for evalu- ation purposes. However, the improvement of these shortcomings would place GSM as a serious competitor to the other existing products for evaluating scientific journals.”

URL : http://digibug.ugr.es/handle/10481/21540

Embracing an Innovation Stimulus Package Over the…

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Embracing an Innovation Stimulus Package :

“Over the past several years, Google has partnered with a number of thought leaders to evaluate and quantify the Internet’s impact on the broader macro-economy. Our work has demonstrated that the Internet has a truly phenomenal impact on economic activity and opportunity, contributing to 21% of GDP growth across the G-20 from 2005-2010. However, since 2008 the global economy has fallen into a state of malaise. GDP growth is slowing worldwide and employment is stagnating as we enter a period some are calling “muddling through.” There is widespread recognition that neither a fiscal stimulus nor a prolonged period of austerity will truly remedy the situation. We believe there remain untapped opportunities to innovate across a range of critical macroeconomic activities by applying core characteristics of the Internet, which has been a source of such astounding innovation in the past decade. What we propose here will not be a panacea for our current economic ills, but by embracing the Innovation Stimulus Agenda we outline, we believe policymakers can move the economic needle in meaningful, positive and sustainable ways.”

URL : http://ssrn.com/abstract=2104350

Use of Web Resources for Scholarly Research in Language and Literature: A Study among Research Scholars in Aligarh Muslim University, India

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This paper assesses the level of awareness and use of web resources by the research scholars of languages and literature in Aligarh Muslim University, India. Further the paper aims to highlight the problems faced by research scholars while accessing web resources, their opinion about the features and usefulness of the e-resources. The study was conducted through a well structured questionnaire administered among the research scholars in the department of English, Hindi, Arabic, Urdu, Persian, Modern Indian Languages and Comparative literature and Culture.

A random sample of 250 respondents collected during the months of June to August 2011 has been taken for analysis. This paper restricts the study exclusively to use of web resources by research scholars of Language and Literature in Aligarh Muslim University. The scope of the study can be extended to other Indian Universities also.

The study reveals that web resources have became an essential part of the research works in AMU. Almost all the services and resources available on Web are utilized by the researchers and Google is the widely used search engine in the University. Many attempts have been made to study the use of e-resources by research scholars in various universities in India, but this is the first of its kind among the researchers of Language and Literature with some suggestions for improvement of web resources and services.

URL : http://irjlis.com/use-web-resources-scholarly-research-language-literature/

Open Access to scholarly information in India Trends…

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Open Access to scholarly information in India: Trends and Developments :

“Purpose : Focuses on the Open Access initiatives and describes some of the current open access channels and the areas where India has made significant progress. Also discusses the significance of those trends for information access in developing countries like India including problems and possible solutions.

Design/methodology/approach : Analyzes and discusses several successful OA channels mainly in five areas. Highlights on some of the Indian OA journals and OA Archives in detail; secondly few Open Course Wares initiatives, Digital Library Projects, Meta data Harvesting Services have been discussed respectively. Lastly, the role of government; professional bodies and role of some of the open access advocates in our country have been discussed.

Findings : OA initiatives and OA channels are growing in India. Some suggestions for the development of OA have been made.

Originality/value : Paper will be useful to those who are not aware of the OA to knowledge movement or seek deeper knowledge about the current state of OA in Indian. Suggestions should be useful to the administrators, funding agencies, OA publishers and librarians in both developing and developed countries.”

URL : http://irjlis.com/pdf_v2n1_jun2012/9_IR009.pdf