Lessons learned in storing theses and associated materials as compound objects :
In the eTheses project theses were enhanced by adding documents containing data, images, audio, video or even simulations. These documents were not stored separately but connected to the theses itself as a compound object. Experiments were done in storing these compound objects in a Fedora and DSpace respository system.
The project delivered a generic representation of an Enhanced e-thesis using concepts based on the OAI-ORE abstract model. Trying out this new technology several valuable insights were attained: the repository software Fedora is quite suited to the task, but does require some further work to ingest resource maps. Also clients are required to view the compound object. In the case of DSpace the majority of the features required were not supported in the version in use (1.5). From the legal perspective compound e‐theses need to take account of the rights governing the constituent parts and cannot be treated only as an entity in their own right. Searching tools are required to not only show the found objects separately but also in relation to the compound object as a whole.
URL : http://www.knowledge-exchange.info/Default.aspx?ID=62&M=News&NewsID=94
Impact of Open Access on stem cell research: An author co-citation analysis
We explore the impact of Open Access (OA) on stem cell research through a comparison of research reported in OA and in non-OA publications. Using an author co-citation analysis method, we find that (a) OA and non-OA publications cover similar major research areas in the stem cell field, but (b) a more diverse range of basic and medical research is reported in OA publications, while (c) biomedical technology areas appear biased towards non-OA publications.
It appears that OA helps maintain diversity of research in this highly interdisciplinary field, and hence contributes to a healthy balance of scientific advancement.
URL : http://conference.ifla.org/past-wlic/2010/155-strotmann-en.pdf
CODE OF BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE FOR S…
CODE OF BEST PRACTICES IN FAIR USE FOR SCHOLARLY RESEARCH IN COMMUNICATION :
This document is a code of best practices that helps U.S. communication scholars to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances—especially when the cultural or social benefits of the use are predominant. It is a general right that applies even in situations where the law provides no specific authorization for the use in question.
This guide identifies four situations that represent the current consensus within the
community of communication scholars about acceptable practices for the fair use of
copyrighted materials.
URL : http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/sites/default/files/PRINTABLE_ICA_CODE.pdf
Designing the Optimal Open Access Mandat…
Designing the Optimal Open Access Mandate : http://openaccess.unt.edu/sites/default/files/06-10/OA_Keynote/OA_Keynote.mov
Open Data Commons – Attribution License released
This is a database specific license requiring attribution for databases. This makes ODC-BY similar to the Creative Commons Attribution license, but is built specifically for databases.
URL : http://www.opendatacommons.org/2010/06/24/open-data-commons-attribution-license-released/
Open Access to the Scientific Journal Li…
Open Access to the Scientific Journal Literature: Situation 2009 :
The Internet has recently made possible the free global availability of scientific journal articles. Open Access (OA) can occur either via OA scientific journals, or via authors posting manuscripts of articles published in subscription journals in open web repositories. So far there have been few systematic studies showing how big the extent of OA is, in particular studies covering all fields of science.
The proportion of peer reviewed scholarly journal articles, which are available openly in full text on the web, was studied using a random sample of 1837 titles and a web search engine. Of articles published in 2008, 8,5% were freely available at the publishers’ sites. For an additional 11,9% free manuscript versions could be found using search engines, making the overall OA percentage 20,4%. Chemistry (13%) had the lowest overall share of OA, Earth Sciences (33%) the highest. In medicine, biochemistry and chemistry publishing in OA journals was more common. In all other fields author-posted manuscript copies dominated the picture.
The results show that OA already has a significant positive impact on the availability of the scientific journal literature and that there are big differences between scientific disciplines in the uptake. Due to the lack of awareness of OA-publishing among scientists in most fields outside physics, the results should be of general interest to all scholars. The results should also interest academic publishers, who need to take into account OA in their business strategies and copyright policies, as well as research funders, who like the NIH are starting to require OA availability of results from research projects they fund. The method and search tools developed also offer a good basis for more in-depth studies as well as longitudinal studies.
URL : http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0011273
Rebooting the CS Publication Process : M…
Rebooting the CS Publication Process :
Many computer science academics have been grousing about failures in our publication process. This
paper catalogs many of the specific complaints that are raised and proposes some radical new solutions
based on the assumption that, by eliminating physical paper entirely and going with a centralized system
to manage papers, we can rethink the entire process: paper submission, revision and publication. Fur-
thermore, having all of the metadata standardized and easily available, ranking algorithms can be easily
conceived to aid in tenure cases and departmental rankings.
URL : http://bit.ly/aeuLa0