Freedom for scholarship in the internet age …

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Freedom for scholarship in the internet age :

“Freedom for Scholarship in the Internet Age examines distortion in the current scholarly communication system and alternatives, focusing on the potential of open access. High profits for a select few scholarly journal publishers in the area of science, technology, and medicine contrast with other portions of the scholarly publishing system such as university presses that are struggling to survive. Two major societal trends, commercialization and irrational rationalization, are explored as factors in the development of distortion in the system, as are potential alternatives, including the commons, state subsidy, DIY publishing, and publishing cooperatives. Original research presented or summarized includes the quarterly series The Dramatic Growth of Open Access, an empirical study of economic possibilities for transition to open access, interviews with scholarly monograph publishers, and an investigation into the potential for transition to open access in the field of communication. The similarities and differences between open access and various Creative Commons licenses are mapped and analyzed.

The conclusion features a set of recommendations for open access. Carefully transitioning the primary economic support for scholarly publishing (academic library budgets) from subscriptions to open access is seen as central to a successful transition. Open access changes the form of the commodity with respect to commercial publication, from the scholarly work per se to the publishing service; a major improvement that overcomes the trend towards enclosure of information, but not necessarily the dominance of the commercial sector. A multi-faceted approach is recommended as optimal to overcome potential vulnerabilities of any single approach to open access. The open access movement is advised to be aware of the less understood societal trend of irrational (or instrumental) rationality, a trend that open access initiatives are just as vulnerable to as subscriptions or purchase-based systems. The remedy for irrational rationality recommended is a systemic or holistic approach. It is recommended that open access be considered part of a potential for broader societal transformation, based on the Internet’s capacity to function as an enabler of many to many communication that could form the basis of either a strong democracy or a decentralized socialism.”

URL : http://pages.cmns.sfu.ca/heather-morrison/files/2012/12/Morrison-library-copy.pdf

Le mouvement Open Data dans la…

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Le mouvement ” Open Data ” dans la grande transformation des intelligences collectives et face à la question des écritures, du web sémantique et des ontologies :

“Le capitalisme cognitif a deux caractéristiques principales, l’intelligence collective et l’utilisation intensive des technologies de l’information, fondées sur la numérisation du contenu, des procédures et des écritures. Dans cet article, nous essayons d’examiner le mouvement Open Data face à la transformation des intelligences collectives et analysons ce processus dans le cadre de l’action publique, de la science, de l’intelligence logicielle, de la stratégie. Nous montrons comment ce mouvement s’articule avec la question du web sémantique, des ontologies, avec la montée de l’algorithmique. Dans ce cadre, l’émergence du ” data mining” se présente comme “récit impérial”, comme le récit des sociétés performatives. S’ouvre également la possibilité de nouveaux modes de gouvernance, l’émergence de nouvelles façons de penser le politique et l’espace public.”

“Cognitive capitalism has two main characteristics, collective intelligence and the intensive use of information technology, based on the digitization of content, procedures and writings. In this paper, we try to examine the Open Data movement faced with the transformation of collective intelligence. We analyze this process in the context of public policy, science, intelligence software. We show how this movement articulates with the issue of semantic web ontologies and with the rise of algorithmic. We emphasize, indirectly but strong, on the emergence of “data mining” as “imperial narrative,” as the story of performative societies in the context of anthropological stratum Internet. We outline the possibility of new modes of governance and the emergence of new ways of thinking about politics and public space. The future of democratic societies is partly at stake.”

URL : http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00759618

Implementing Finch Conference Session one Dame Lynne Brindley…

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Implementing Finch Conference :

Session one: Dame Lynne Brindley pn the implications for the arts, humanities and social sciences

Session two: Professor Tim Blackman and Professor Robert Dingwall on the implications for individual researchers, both within and outside HEIs

Session three: Dame Janet Finch’s opening remarks; Paul Hubbard on the implications for REF 2020; Maureen Duffy and Professor Charlotte Wealde on the implications for authors rights and IPR; Jude England on the implications for academic libraries

Day two: opening remarks from Professor Martin Hall; The future for publishing learned society journals with Dr David Green (Routledge), Philip Carpenter (Wiley) and Ziyad Marar (SAGE)

Session two: Dr Felice Levine on the perspective of the USA

Session three: Sally Hardy and Professor Stephen Bailey on learned societies and the uses of publisher income; Dr Rita Gardner on the implications for learned society business models; and speaker panel with David Green, Philip Carpenter, Ziyad Marar, Sally Hardy, Stephen Bailey and Rita Gardner

Open access and development Journals and beyond …

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Open access and development : Journals and beyond :

“This following report sets out to explore what Open Access means, how it has evolved as a philosophical and practical tool for scholarly communication, and how these publishing modes are currently being used to redress some of the imbalances, which currently exist within the traditional models of scholarly communication. It then goes on to examine the current and potential uses of open access in the context of the developing world; questions if, within these contexts, a different open access-based approach is required, and makes recommendations for this.”

URL : http://hdl.handle.net/11105/159

Digital distribution of academic journals and its impact…

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Digital distribution of academic journals and its impact on scholarly communication: Looking back
after 20 years :

“It has been approximately 20 years since distributing scholarly journals digitally became feasible. This article discusses the broad implications of the transition to digital distributed scholarship from a historical perspective and focuses on the development of open access (OA) and the various models for funding OA in the context of the roles scholarly journals play in scientific communities.”

URL : http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc4/final.pdf

On the impact of Gold Open Access journals…

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On the impact of Gold Open Access journals :

“Gold Open Access (=Open Access publishing) is for many the preferred route to achieve unrestricted and immediate access to research output. However, true Gold Open Access journals are still outnumbered by traditional journals. Moreover availability of Gold OA journals differs from discipline to discipline and often leaves scientists concerned about the impact of these existent titles. This study identified the current set of Gold Open Access journals featuring a Journal Impact Factor (JIF) by means of Ulrichsweb, Directory of Open Access Journals and Journal Citation Reports (JCR). The results were analyzed regarding disciplines, countries, quartiles of the JIF distribution in JCR and publishers. Furthermore the temporal impact evolution was studied for a Top 50 titles list (according to JIF) by means of Journal Impact Factor, SJR and SNIP in the time interval 2000–2010. The identified top Gold Open Access journals proved to be well-established and their impact is generally increasing for all the analyzed indicators. The majority of JCR-indexed OA journals can be assigned to Life Sciences and Medicine. The success-rate for JCR inclusion differs from country to country and is often inversely proportional to the number of national OA journal titles. Compiling a list of JCR-indexed OA journals is a cumbersome task that can only be achieved with non-Thomson Reuters data sources. A corresponding automated feature to produce current lists ‘‘on the fly’’ would be desirable in JCR in order to conveniently track the impact evolution of Gold OA journals.”

URL : https://uscholar.univie.ac.at/view/o:246061

One publisher’s journey through the public access debate…

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One publisher’s journey through the public access debate :

“This paper presents the content of my closing address given at the Academic Publishing in Europe 2012 Conference. I share my perspective of the public access debate, as CEO of American Institute of Physics, a medium-size scientific publisher and my observations on our industry’s most important customers – the libraries. The origin of the often contentious public access debate can be traced back to a worthy goal shared by all stakeholders: the expansion of access to and broad use of scholarly publications. Starting with principles and recommendations set forth in the 2010 Scholarly Publishing Roundtable Report, I outline a productive and pragmatic path forward and identify appropriate and cost-effective options for expanding access. Furthermore, I review the major elements of public access policy development in the US since 2005, leading up to January 2012, a year after President Obama signed into public law the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. This essay has been expanded to include additional information, covering the issue through September 2012 (submission date of this article), and addresses related government initiatives that appeared in the UK and the European Union.”

URL : http://iospress.metapress.com/content/9318j0n53511043p/fulltext.pdf