Scholarly Publishing – Page 77 – InfoDoc MicroVeille

De l’intérêt des bibliothèques nationales pour l’Open Access…

Statut

De l’intérêt des bibliothèques nationales pour l’Open Access :

“Il y a de cela dix ans, la Déclaration de Berlin sur le libre accès à la connaissance en sciences exactes, sciences de la vie, sciences humaines et sociales, désormais reconnue comme l’un des textes fondateurs du mouvement de l’Open Access (OA), précisait les deux conditions requises pour qu’une publication soit dite de libre accès :
• l’attribution d’un droit d’accès « gratuit, irrévocable et mondial » et d’une licence de réutilisation, d’une part ;
• l’archivage électronique de sa version complète, d’autre part.

À ce jour, quatre bibliothèques nationales figurent parmi les 451 signataires de ce texte : la Bibliothèque royale du Danemark, la Bibliothèque royale de Suède, la Biblioteca de Catalunya et la Bibliothèque nationale islandaise. Cela paraît bien peu et interroge sur les raisons qui pourraient pousser ces établissements à s’intéresser à la pratique de la diffusion en ligne, sans intermédiation et sans barrière financière, de la littérature scientifique.

Tout d’abord, la Déclaration de Berlin embrasse dans sa définition du libre accès non seulement les données et travaux de la recherche mais aussi les biens culturels : « Nous définissons le libre accès comme une source universelle de la connaissance humaine et du patrimoine culturel ayant recueilli l’approbation de la communauté scientifique. » Permettre à tous d’accéder à « la connaissance, la pensée, la culture et l’information » est un des engagements des bibliothèques publiques. Certes, « [l]e fonds commun de la pensée et de l’information scientifiques est [déjà] de libre parcours. » Toutefois la tendance aujourd’hui est à une privatisation du savoir. Peuvent être évoqués ici le phénomène d’extension du domaine du brevetable (au vivant, aux mathématiques, aux découvertes elles-mêmes), l’allongement de la durée des droits d’auteur et l’octroi d’une protection juridique aux « digital barbed wire 6 » (« fils de fer barbelés numériques »). Les bibliothèques nationales peuvent dès lors soutenir l’émergence de nouveaux modèles de diffusion de l’information.

Les bibliothèques nationales se sont saisies de la question de l’Open Access à des degrés divers. Certaines ont usé de leur position stratégique pour défendre la cause du libre et engager le politique à s’y intéresser à son tour. D’autres ont choisi de mettre à profit leurs compétences et leurs moyens pour faire avancer un dossier particulier, qu’il s’agisse de signalement, d’archivage ou d’édition électronique. D’autres encore ont voulu s’associer au mouvement de l’OA par la libre publication de leurs ressources sur internet.”

URL : http://bbf.enssib.fr/consulter/bbf-2013-06-0020-003

Journal Usage Half Life An analysis of…

Statut

Journal Usage Half-Life :

“An analysis of article downloads from 2,812 academic and professional journals published by 13 presses in the sciences, social sciences , and the humanities reveals extensive
usage of articles years after publication. Measuring usage half life — the median age of articles downloaded from a publisher’s web site — just 3% of journals had half lives shorter than 12 months. While journal usage half lives were typically shorter for journals in the Health Sciences (median half life: 25-36 months), they were considerably longer for journals in the Humanities, Physics and Mathematics (median half life: 49-60 months). Nearly 17% (475) of all journals had usage half lives exceeding six years. This study illustrates substantial variation in the usage half lives of journals both within and across subject disciplines.”

URL : http://www.publishers.org/_attachments/docs/journalusagehalflife.pdf

Library as Scholarly Publishing Partner: Keys to Success

Statut

“Many academic libraries are looking at new ways to add value when they deliver services to faculty, and one potential area where the library can provide new services is in partnering with academic staff to support the dissemination of faculty research. Librarians have traditionally helped faculty researchers at the beginning of the research cycle, with the discovery and delivery of information sources. However, they are now playing a role at the end of the research cycle, providing services that support scholarly publishing. This paper examines library participation in faculty-led publishing ventures. In particular, it explores the value that smaller research libraries can provide to faculty editors through journal hosting, which will be analysed through an examination of the successful migration of the Australian Journal of Teacher Education, a faculty-administered journal at Edith Cowan University in Perth, Western Australia, to the University’s institutional repository. This transition provided library staff members at Edith Cowan University opportunities to develop new knowledge and skills in journal publishing, while meeting the journal’s need for a better way to manage a growing influx of article submissions. The resultant faculty-library partnership enabled more effective management of the journal and has contributed to its growing success. The evaluative framework developed to enable assessment of the success of this journal’s transition can help other libraries demonstrate the success of their own journal hosting ventures.”

URL : Library as Scholarly Publishing Partner_ Keys to Success

DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1091

Just Roll with It Rolling Volumes vs Discrete…

Statut

Just Roll with It? Rolling Volumes vs. Discrete Issues in Open Access Library and Information Science Journals :

“INTRODUCTION : Articles in open access (OA) journals can be published on a rolling basis, as they become ready, or in complete, discrete issues. This study examines the prevalence of and reasons for rolling volumes vs. discrete issues among scholarly OA library and information science (LIS) journals based in the United States.
METHODS : A survey was distributed to journal editors, asking them about their publication model and their reasons for and satisfaction with that model. RESULTS Of the 21 responding journals, 12 publish in discrete issues, eight publish in rolling volumes, and one publishes in rolling volumes with an occasional special issue. Almost all editors, regardless of model, cited ease of workflow as a justification for their chosen publication model, suggesting that there is no single best workflow for all journals. However, while all rolling-volume editors reported being satisfied with their model, satisfaction was less universal among discrete-issue editors.
DISCUSSION : The unexpectedly high number of rolling-volume journals suggests that LIS journal editors are making forward-looking choices about publication models even though the topic has not been much addressed in the library literature. Further research is warranted; possibilities include expanding the study’s geographic scope, broadening the study to other disciplines, and investigating publication model trends across the entire scholarly OA universe.
CONCLUSION : Both because satisfaction is high among editors of rolling-volume journals and because readers and authors appreciate quick publication times, the rolling-volume model will likely become even more prevalent in coming years.”

SciELO 15 Years of Open Access an analytic…

Statut

SciELO – 15 Years of Open Access: an analytic study on Open Access and scholarly communication :

“The 15 year path taken by the SciELO Program in bringing about the improvement of the academic journals which it indexes and publishes in Open Access – a path which it continues to follow to this day – is examined from various perspectives such as the rationale and objectives of the program, its origin in Brazil and expansion to 15 other countries, the results it has achieved, its quality control and production system, the technological platform and the impact that has been made by the Program.”

URL : http://www.scielo.org/php/level.php?component=42&item=29&lang=en

Encouraging Digital Scholarly Publishing in the Humanities White…

Statut

Encouraging Digital Scholarly Publishing in the Humanities: White Paper :

“This project, led by the University Press of North Georgia, and funded by a Digital Start-Up grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities focused on exploring the peer review process and increasing its usefulness to presses and scholars publishing digitally. By exploring this issues we have made recommendations for best practices in digital publishing, specifically for small academic presses. Through surveys and a workshop of key stakeholder groups (press directors, college administrators, humanities faculty, and library/technology center directors), we found a strong investment in the “gold standard” of double- or single-blind peer review. Working within the current academic publishing structure (including publishing in print) was a priority, even to presses and faculty members who were actively exploring digital publishing and open access models. On closer inspection, we realized that the various stakeholders valued the current peer review process for different reasons. And we found that the value of peer review goes beyond vetting the quality of scholarship and manuscript content. Based on these findings, we considered ways to obtain these benefits within the current academic structure through innovative peer review processes. At the same time, we looked for ways of offsetting potential risks associated with these alternative methods. We considered cost effective ways to accommodate the needs of the disparate constituencies involved in academic publishing while allowing room for digital publishing. While our findings focus primarily on small academic presses, they also have significant implications for the open access community.”

URL : http://ung.edu/college-of-arts-and-letters/encouraging-digital-publishing/