Open Access and Institutional Repositories in Agricultural Sciences. The Case of Botswana College of Agriculture (BCA) :
The Internet hasmade it easy to create digital collections and make them readily accessible. Academic and research institutions in developing countries generate an enormous amount of information. Most of the information exists as grey literature and is often difficult to collect, store, preserve and make accessible to users. In addition, developing countries are facing barriers in access to scholarly information due to financial constraints. One way of overcoming these problems is to promote open access (OA) and institutional repositories (IR). OA and IRs are indispensable for academic and research institutions in developing countries because access to adequate, timely and relevant information is imperative to improve research and development in the agricultural sector. This paper explores OA and IRs from practical perspectives. It describes the Botswana College of Agriculture Library’s IR as a case study, including lessons learned in establishing and running the IR.
URL : http://journals.sfu.ca/iaald/index.php/aginfo/article/viewFile/127/94
Archives des mots-clés : open access
Preserving Open Access Journals: A Liter…
Preserving Open Access Journals: A Literature Review :
This literature review addresses certain questions concerning the preservation of free, born-digital scholarly materials. It covers recent thinking on the current state of preservation efforts of born-digital materials; the range of actors involved in significant preservation initiatives of these artefacts; the perceived barriers preventing open access materials from benefiting from existing preservation efforts; initiatives that may enable local, small-scale preservation efforts to be undertaken; the challenges and opportunities posed to preservation by new models of scholarship such as open access datasets, reference sharing and annotation, collaborative authoring and community peer review. The review identifies representative international collaborative preservation initiatives, describes their goals and results, their specific preservation strategie, and their applicability to the preservation of born digital open access materials.
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/18414/
Free and open scholarship in the interne…
Free and open scholarship in the internet age :
Describes an action research project on scholarly communication in early stages. Research sites include the Open Access Journal Supports in Canada research team, E-LIS, the Open Archive for Library and Information, Scholarly and Research Communication (a new open access journal), and Stream, the SFU School of Communication graduate student open access journal. Methods include action research, economic and discourse analysis.
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/18406/
Comparing Repository Types – Challenges …
Comparing Repository Types – Challenges and barriers for subject-based repositories, research repositories, national repository systems and institutional repositories in serving scholarly communication :
After two decades of repository development, some conclusions may be drawn as to which type of repository and what kind of service best supports digital scholarly communication, and thus the production of new knowledge. Four types of publication repository may be distinguished, namely the subject-based repository, research repository, national repository system and institutional repository. Two important shifts in the role of repositories may be noted. With regard to content, a well-defined and high quality corpus is essential. This implies that repository services are likely to be most successful when constructed with the user and reader uppermost in mind. With regard to service, high value to specific scholarly communities is essential. This implies that repositories are likely to be most useful to scholars when they offer dedicated services supporting the production of new knowledge. Along these lines, challenges and barriers to repository development may be identified in three key dimensions: a) identification and deposit of content; b) access and use of services; and c) preservation of content and sustainability of service. An indicative comparison of challenges and barriers in some major world regions such as Europe, North America and East Asia plus Australia is offered in conclusion.
URL : http://arxiv.org/abs/1005.0839
A Survey of the Scholarly Journals Using…
A Survey of the Scholarly Journals Using Open Journal Systems :
A survey of 998 scholarly journals that use Open Journal Systems (OJS), an open source
journal software platform, captures the characteristics of an emerging class of scholarpublisher
open access journals (with some representation from more traditional scholarly
society and print-based titles). The journals in the sample follow traditional norms for peerreviewing,
acceptance rates, and disciplinary focus, but are distinguished by the number that
offer open access to their content, the growth rates in new titles, the participation rates from
developing countries, and the extremely low operating budgets. The survey also documents
the limited degree to which open source software can alter a field of communication, as OJS
appears to have created a third path, dedicated to maximizing access to research and
scholarship, as an alternative to traditional scholarly society and commercial publishing
routes.
URL : http://pkp.sfu.ca/files/OJS%20Journal%20Survey.pdf
Open Access in Italy : The report descri…
Open Access in Italy :
The report describes the state of the art of Open Access in Italy, offering an overview on institutional and disciplinary based repositories, repository contents, and OA mandates. Moreover, the report describes the major projects provided by two Italian supercomputing consortia (such as PLEIADI and SURPlus). The authors of the report then reflect upon the future of Open Access in Italy, concluding that without a national funded planning strategy voluntary initiatives are somewhat uncertain.
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/18365/
Open Access in Canada: A Strong Beginnin…
Open Access in Canada: A Strong Beginning :
Scholarly open access (OA), one of CLA’s information policy advocacy areas, has reached critical momentum in Canada. New initiatives are being announced regularly in all areas of the open access movement, including OA publishing, repositories and mandates. Established projects are becoming regularized and growing. Most of these initiatives are library-based or are connected to libraries in some way. This article presents some examples of these activities, along with progress highlights from the past year.
URL : http://eprints.rclis.org/16870/1/Feliciter_56.2_-_%239_Open_Access_Canada_published.pdf