Princeton University will stop researchers from handing over their copyright to journal publishers, as part of a new open access policy at the university. Currently, researchers at Princeton and elsewhere 'give away' their work to journal publishers, and then have to buy back the journals in which their work gets published. It is a system that enriches publishers to the detriment of open scholarship.

^{Historically, peer-reviewed journals were published by scientific societies on a non-profit basis. Today scholarly publishing is dominated by a handful of large commercial publishers focused on maximising their profits. This has left small society publishers struggling to survive and libraries unable to afford all the journals they need.}

What is open scholarship? Why is it important? How open are we at UQ to the values around open scholarship? And how do we compare to Europe and North America?

These ideas will be canvassed in an upcoming seminar:

Open Scholarship Attitudes and Intentions at UQ: comparing UQ to North American, European & South African Higher Education Institutions, presented by Dr Joseph Hardin, Director Mujo Research, and Professor Emeritis, The University of Michigan.

Are you interested in getting your research published? What are the challenges?

Enjoy a free lunch and discuss the prospects of a Graduate eJournal with us.

Please register if you are interested in attending.

When: Monday, 19 September, 12-2 pm.

With heavyweights like MIT and Harvard, Stanford and Columbia Universities behind it, the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI) has plenty of traction. The impetus behind the coalition was the University of Kansas, which in June 2009 became the first US public university to adopt an open access policy regarding scholarly research in peer-reviewed journals.

The Open Scholarship Survey, part of the Open Scholarship Initiative, goes live this week. As a research project, the survey is intended to obtain a stratified random sample of responses from researchers, research and teaching academics, administrators and students.

The University of Kansas has taken the lead with 21 other universities and colleges in announcing they'll join forces to form the Coalition of Open Access Policy Institutions (COAPI). COAPI will collaborate and share implementation strategies and advocate on a national level for institutions with open access policies.

The Howard Hughes Medical Institute News reports that Randy W. Schekman, a distinguished cell biologist and the 14th editor of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, has been named the first editor of a new journal that the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society, and the Wellcome Trust aim to launch next year.

The Federal Government has just launched an open access and licensing framework to encourage governments to get their data out there. Publicly funded information should be available to the public and AusGOAL, the Australian Governments' Open Access and Licensing Framework, aims to make it easier for governments to comply.