Anatomy of Green Open Access Open Access…

Statut

Anatomy of Green Open Access :

“Open Access (OA) is the free unrestricted access to electronic versions of scholarly publications. For peer reviewed journal articles there are two main routes to OA, publishing in OA journals (gold OA) or archiving of article copies or manuscripts at other web locations (green OA). This study focuses on summarizing and extending upon current knowledge about green OA. A synthesis of previous studies indicates that the green OA coverage of all published journal articles is approximately 12%, with substantial disciplinary variation. Typically, green OA copies become available with considerable time delays, partly caused by publisher imposed embargo periods, and partly by author tendencies to archive manuscripts only perio dically. Although green OA copies should ideally be archived in proper repositories, a large share is stored on home pages and similar locations, with no assurance of long-term preservation. Often such locations contain exact copies of published articles, which may infringe on the publisher’s exclusive rights. The technical foundation for green OA uploading is becoming increasingly solid, which is largely due to the rapid increase in the number of institutional repositories. The number of articles within th e scope of OA mandates, which strongly influence the self-archival rate of articles, is nevertheless still low.”

URL : http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc8/Personal%20VersionGreenOa.pdf

A longitudinal comparison of citation rates and growth…

Statut

A longitudinal comparison of citation rates and growth among open access journals :

“The study documents the growth in the number of journals and articles along with the increase in normalized citation rates of open access (OA) journals listed in the Scopus bibliographic database between 1999 and 2010. Longitudinal statistics on growth in journals/articles and citation rates are broken down by funding model, discipline, and whether the journal was launched or had converted to OA. The data we re retrieved from the web sites of SCIMago Journal and Country Rank (journal /article counts), JournalM3trics (SNIP2 values), Scopus (journal discipline) and Director y of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) (OA and funding status). OA journals/articles have grown much faster than subscription journals but still make up less that 12% of the journals in Scopus. Two-year cita tion averages for journals funded by article processing charges (APCs) have reached the same level as subscription journals. Citation averages of OA journals funded by other means continue to lag well behind OA journals funded by APCs and subscription journals. We hypothesize this is less an issue of quality than due to the fact that such journals are commonly published in languages other than English and tend to be located outside the four major publishing countries.”

URL : http://www.openaccesspublishing.org/apc9/acceptedversion.pdf

The ethics of open access publishing

Should those who work on ethics welcome or resist moves to open access publishing? This paper analyses arguments in favour and against the increasing requirement for open access publishing and considers their implications for bioethics research. In the context of biomedical science, major funders are increasingly mandating open access as a condition of funding and such moves are also common in other disciplines.

Whilst there has been some debate about the implications of open-access for the social sciences and humanities, there has been little if any discussion about the implications of open access for ethics. This is surprising given both the central role of public reason and critique in ethics and the fact that many of the arguments made for and against open access have been couched in moral terms.

In what follows I argue that those who work in ethics have a strong interest in supporting moves towards more open publishing approaches which have the potential both to inform and promote richer and more diverse forms of public deliberation and to be enriched by them. The importance of public deliberation in practical and applied ethics suggests that ethicists have a particular interest in the promotion of diverse and experimental forms of publication and debate and in supporting new, more creative and more participatory approaches to publication.

URL : http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6939/14/16/abstract

Open Access versus Traditional Journal Pricing Using a…

Statut

Open Access versus Traditional Journal Pricing: Using a Simple “Platform Market” Model to Understand Which Will Win (and Which Should) :

“Economists have built a theory to understand markets in which, rather than selling directly to buyers, suppliers sell through a platform, which controls prices on both sides. The theory has been applied to understand markets ranging from telephony, to credit cards, to media. In this paper, we apply the theory to the market for scholarly journals, with the journal functioning as the platform between submitting authors and subscribing readers. Our goal is to understand the conditions under which a journal would prefer open access to traditional pricing and under which open access would be better for the scholarly community. Our new model captures much of the richness of the existing economic literature on journal pricing, and indeed adds some fresh insights, yet is simple enough to be accessible to a broad audience.”

URL : http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2012.11.035

Open Access Initiatives in Africa — Structure, Incentives and Disincentives

Building open access in Africa is imperative not only for African scholars and researchers doing scientific research but also for the expansion of the global science and technology knowledgebase. This paper examines the structure of homegrown initiatives, and observes very low level of awareness prevailing in the higher educational institutions and research institutes, organizations and governments.

Increasing penetration of internet as well as growing proficiency in its use account for any evidence of OA movement in the region. The absence of interest and willingness of governments and policy makers to take a role in building the movement in the region makes any observed progress a fragmented one.

URL : http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2012.11.024

Adding Value to Electronic Theses and Dissertations in…

Statut

Adding Value to Electronic Theses and Dissertations in Institutional Repositories :

“Part of the grey literature, electronic theses and dissertations (ETDs) represent a growing segment of open, available content in institutional repositories (IR) where they contribute to the impact and ranking of their institution. More than half of all IRs listed in the Directory of Open Access Repositories contain ETDs. Most of these open access projects have similarities and common features, such as access to full text and compliance with the OAI metadata harvesting protocol. But more important are the differences, with regard to metadata, policy, access restrictions, representativeness, file format, status, quality and related services. In this paper, we investigate what can be done to improve the quality of content and service provision in an open environment, in order to increase impact, traffic and usage. Based on a review of 54 recent communications and articles on PhD theses in institutional repositories, this paper shows five ways in which institutions can add value to the deposit and dissemination of electronic theses and dissertations and describes two developments that are challenging institutional repositories.”

URL : http://www.dlib.org/dlib/march13/schopfel/03schopfel.html

Synthèse sur les politiques institutionnelles de libre accès…

Statut

Synthèse sur les politiques institutionnelles de libre accès à la recherche :

“En matière d’archives ouvertes, les politiques strictement incitatives se sont avérées relativement peu efficaces (environ 15% de dépôts plein texte volontaires). Par contraste, les mandats institutionnels, dont le principe est de rendre ce dépôt plus ou moins obligatoire, permettent d’augmenter significativement la participation des chercheurs. Diverses enquêtes ont d’ailleurs montré qu’une majorité d’auteurs seraient disposés à archiver leurs travaux si un tel mandat les y contraignait. Depuis 2003, les mandats essaiment à travers le monde, particulièrement aux États-Unis, mais également en Europe, où l’Université de Liège fait désormais figure de modèle. L’Union européenne, qui via son 8e PCRD (Horizon 2020) devrait rendre obligatoire le libre accès à toute recherche qu’elle finance, recommande l’adoption de mandats à ses États membres. De son côté, le Royaume-Uni semble privilégier la voie dorée, au détriment de la voie verte, avec pour conséquence probable l’envolée des coûts de publication, à la charge des universités. En France, les mandats, défendus par le CNRS et dont l’efficacité a été reconnue et approuvée à un niveau officiel, sont encore plutôt le fait d’organismes nationaux que d’universités. L’adoption et la mise en œuvre d’une politique institutionnelle est un processus de longue haleine : pour qu’elle soit comprise et acceptée par la communauté scientifique, il faut en méditer soigneusement la formulation, l’expliquer aux chercheurs de manière à éviter tout risque d’interprétation erronée, l’accompagner par des actions de soutien et de suivi, proposer des services à valeur ajoutée en rétribution aux efforts d’auto-archivage. Il peut s’avérer stratégiquement judicieux de limiter dans un premier temps l’application du mandat à des laboratoires-relais, dont l’exemple peut avoir un effet incitatif.”

URL : http://archivesic.ccsd.cnrs.fr/sic_00794497