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

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.

• 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.

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:

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.

The latest article on Open Access(OA) in the Conversation by Danny Kingsley summarises the differences between the NHMRC and ARC policies on O

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:

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

Articles includes:

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