Jump to Navigation

Category: Open Access

eSpace Update: What's New?

UQ eSpace What's New?

  • Social Media - A social media badge has been added to the view pages of eSpace records - now your favourite records can be "Liked, Tweeted and Shared".
  • Scope and Policy document updated - The eSpace Scope and Policy document has been updated.
  • 'Daily Snapshot' - The order of items in the 'Daily Snapshot' on the eSpace homepage now defaults to 'Recently Added ' rather than to 'News' and the order has been changed to give more prominence to the former.
  • Sherpa/Romeo - Sherpa/Romeo provides publisher information, links now display in eSpace on the pages from all journals listed in Sherpa/Romeo.
  • Improved usability of view pages - Usability of 'View Pages' in eSpace has been improved by moving Document-type, Sub-type and Collections to the foot of each record and relocating the DOI to the top.
  • For Unit Publication Officers - The Unit Publication Officer Guide has been significantly updated.

For further information go to UQ eSpace.

Open Access News

  • The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) has launched a new platform with improved searching features. DOAJ now contains 8869 journals with 4550 journals searchable at the article level.
  • The Research Councils UK (RCUK) policy on open access came into effect from the 1st April 2013. The policy states that all peer-reviewed published research articles and conference proceedings funded by RCUK must be open access. A video from BioMed Central has a helpful explanation.
  • Updates have been made to the "Where to Publish" page with Lists of journals which allow free access to the published version within 12 months: Highwire Press, Elsevier and Wiley-Blackwell.
  • De Gruyter have released a video showcasing their new open access model for libraries, "The Art of Paper Planes".

Open Access Update - a snapshot of OA this week

OA logo.jpgA constant flurry of open access developments are underway at UQ, national and international levels.

At UQ

  • UQ Library made Peter Suber's Open Access book available via ebrary. The catalogue description: A concise introduction to the basics of open access, describing what it is, showing that it is easy, fast, inexpensive, legal, and beneficial.
  • Helen Morgan, Andrew Heath and I have prepared materials for a talk we are giving at the School of Pharmacy, spotlighting open access and pharmacy.

Presentation / Download OA Table Feb13 (3).pdf Two Tables (249.6 KB) illustrate how we can achieve open access without paying commercial publisher rates.

In Australia

Around the World

On 22 February 2013 the Obama administration announced a New Open access policy known as the White House Directive.

Increasing Access (USA - Fed Funded Sci Research)

  • "Increasing Access to the Results of Federally Funded Scientific Research"requiring Federal agencies that spend over $100 million in research and development to have a plan developed by 2014 to "support increased public access to the results of research funded by the Federal Government." This policy incorporates both scientific publications and digital scientific data, and limits embargo periods to twelve months post-publication.

Fair Access (USA - Sci and Tech Research Act)

  • "Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act (FASTR)" was introduced in both the House of Representatives and the Senate in February after three unsuccessful previous attempts. This Bill is also restricted to agencies with research budgets of more than $100 million and it requires deposit of research findings in a repository in a format that allows for text or data mining. It differs in that it has an embargo of only 6 months.

Read recent open access articles:

Blog written by Lisa Kruesi Associate Director SPaDS

New Open-Access Journal

Just launched is the new open-access scientific journal Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene. Elementa aims to facilitate scientific solutions to the challenges presented by this era of accelerated human impact on natural systems. It is committed to the rapid publication of technically sound, peer-reviewed articles that address interactions between human and natural systems and behaviors (Elementa, Feb 2013). Submission will be accepted April 2013

Elementa is aimed at six main knowledge domains including:

  • Atmospheric Science
  • Earth and Environmental Science
  • Ecology, Ocean Science
  • Sustainable Engineering
  • Sustainability Sciences

Elementa is supported by BioOne and five academic Dartmouth, the Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Colorado Boulder, the University of Michigan, and the University of Washington.

For further information go to the pre-publication site.

ACM - investigating open access

Positioning ACM for an Open Access Future (from Communications of the ACM, February 2013), discusses how ACM can provide free access to some of its publications. ACM has endorsed a publishing policy that expands author rights and provides greater levels of flexibility to open access. Sustainable options are currently being examined.

Latest Open Access News Jan/Feb 2013

  • Sage Open has reduced their open access article processing fee to $99 per article. Announcement Jan 24th 2013
  • The Max Planck Society and De Gruyter Sign Agreement for Open Access Book Publishing. Press release Jan 24th 2013
  • World Allergy Organization Journal is now open access has published its first open access articles with BioMed Central. BioMed Central Blog Jan 31 2013
  • Portland Press adopts Creative Commons Attribution Licence (CC-BY) for Open Access papers, which includes journals such as ASN NEURO, Bioscience Reports, Biochemical Journal, Biochemical Society Transactions and the clinical research publication Clinical Science. Press release Feb 2nd 2013

The Latest Open Access News for the Humanities

Open Library of Humanities, propose that research in the humanities should be open and free to read and re-use, provided that authors are cited. To support this proposal they have established a team who will examine some of the key issue of open access publishing in the humanities. With the ultimate aim to provide a platform for Open Access publishing that is:

  • Reputable and respected through rigorous peer review
  • Sustainable
  • Digitally preserved and safely archived in perpetuity
  • Non-profit
  • Open in both monetary and permission terms
  • Non-discriminatory (APCs are waiverable)
  • Technically innovative in response to the needs of scholars and librarians
  • A solution to the serials crisis

Mission statement

News from Figshare

Figshare Partners with Open Access mega journal publisher PLOS

Figshare announced this week that they have gone into partnership with PLOS to host the supplemental data for all seven PLOS journals. For ease of access to view the data, PLOS will provide a widget, which will allow the users to view the data alongside the content.

"PLOS believes in making data as visible and useful as possible," said Kristen Ratan, Chief Publishing and Product Officer at PLOS. "Partnering with figshare is an important step in increasing the accessibility of the data associated with our research articles."

Become a Figshare advisor and get lots in return!

Figshare have invited members of their community to become advisors. In exchange for presenting figshare to your colleagues at a lab meeting or journal club.

  • In return for becoming an advisor Figshare are offering :
  • figshare goodies such as hoodies, t-shirts, mugs, stickers, pens, etc.
  • Early access to new features before they're public.
  • A figshare Advisor badge on your figshare profile.
  • Travel expenses paid by figshare when you give presentations outside of your area.
  • Looks great on your C.V.

What is open access and why should we care?

The latest article on Open Access(OA) in the Conversation by Danny Kingsley summarises the differences between the NHMRC and ARC policies on OA. It also gives a great introduction to OA, what it is, why we should care about it, and how it is likely to be achieved in Australia. Read: What is open access and why should we care?

F1000Research: Open-Access Journal & Much More

F1000Research (launched 2013) is an original open-access publishing program for life scientists it offers:

  • Immediate publication
  • Transparent peer review (post-publication)
  • Full data deposition and sharing

Other service on this platform includes:

F1000Posters an open access repository of conference posters and oral presentations from across biology and medicine. F10000 claims that by depositing you poster it will:

  • Widen your audience by linking your full paper to the poster
  • Provide discussion and feedback

F1000Prime an online directory which includes:

  • Daily updates
  • Over 100,000 recommendations of the top publishing articles in biology and medicine directory
  • Personnel customization for quick access to the content that interests you including; favourite sections, stored search, bookmarked articles and email alerts

Institutional membership is available for University of Queensland staff & students. Register at F100Prime.

ARC Open Access Policy Announced

The ARC has announced a new Open Access Policy, which takes effect from the 1st January 2013.

According to this new policy the ARC requires that any publications arising from an ARC supported research project must be deposited into an open access institutional repository within a twelve (12) month period from the date of publication.

It differs from the NHMRC Open Access Policy, in that it will not be applied retrospectively to existing funded research.

The policy commences on 1 January 2013, but the first publications are not potentially due to be made available in an institutional repository until after 1 January 2014.
The policy will be incorporated into all new Funding Rules and Agreements released after 1 January 2013. It will not be applied retrospectively to pre-existing Funding Rules and Agreements.

The aim of ARC's Policy is to ensure that the findings of publicly funded research are made available to the wider public as soon as possible. Both the research community and the public gain from knowledge derived from ARC funded research, and both wish to derive maximum benefit from these outputs.

Commentaries on the policy…..

The Conversation

9 Jan 2013 - Free for all: ARC-funded research now open to the public

15 Jan 2013 - What is open access and why should we care?

World Archaeology Special Issue on Open Data

The latest issue of World Archaeology is a special issue on "Open Data"


Articles includes:

  • Open archaeology by Mark Lake
  • A vision of Open Archaeology Anthony Beck & Cameron Neylon
  • Openness and archaeology's information ecosystem Eric Kansa
  • DIY and digital archaeology; what are you doing to participate? Colleen Morgan & Stuart Eve
  • Lost in information? Ways of knowing and modes of representation in e-archaeology Jeremy Huggett


For further information go to World Archaeology Volume 44, Issue 4, 2012

The New Open-Access Journal, eLife is launched

On the 13th December the latest open-access journal eLife was official launched. A press release yesterday stated eLife, the open-access journal for outstanding advances in life sciences and biomedicine reveals a fresh approach to presenting and using scientific content on its new website.

eLife aims to provide a journal portal that invites visitors to

Explore - Important new research and associated data
Read - Commentary by experts and colleagues

eLife is supported by Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and Wellcome Trust.

eLife - a new open access journal

elife_logo_large.png

eLife - http://elife.elifesciences.org/ - is a new open access, peer-reviewed, life sciences journal.

It contains material in the following subjects:

  • Immunology
  • Microbiology and infectious disease
  • Biophysics and structural biology
  • Genomics and evolutionary biology
  • Plant biology
  • Genes and chromosomes
  • Cell biology
  • Neuroscience
  • Biochemistry
  • Human biology and medicine

If you want to get published… the journal is offering free publication, while it's being established.

Compliance with NIH public access policy - update

Commencing around April 2013 the NIH will begin to hold processing of non-competing continuation awards if publications arising from grant awards are not in compliance with the public access policy. Once publications are in compliance, awards will go forward. Funded organizations will be given at least five months to prepare for the new process, and can use this time to make sure that publications comply with the policy. For more details: http://nexus.od.nih.gov/all/2012/11/16/improving-public-access-to-research-results/