Open Access Day is October 14!

October 14th, 2008 has been declared Open Access Day! Libraries, publishers and institutions around the world will be drawing attention to Open Access and celebrating the successes of this movement so far. Sponsored by SPARC, Public Library of Science and Students for Free Culture, Open Access Day includes a live video webcast and will be hosted in over 100 locations across the world, combined with a variety of local promotional activities to share information about the issues of Open Access. More information about this international event can be found here: http://openaccessday.org.


For an overview of the issues of Open Access, please see the Scholarly Communication & Publishing web site: http://www.library.wisc.edu/scp/openaccess/.


At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, we have a number of promotional efforts in place and will be hosting the live webcast at the Memorial Union at 6:00pm (TITU). Everyone is welcome. The Libraries Web Site will have a promotional banner on October 14th that will lead to a special web page defining and celebrating Open Access: http://www.library.wisc.edu/scp/oaday/.

Open Access Publishing Support Fund

The Scholarly Communication and Publishing Committee has instituted a new, streamlined process for applying to the Open Access Publishing Support Fund. This fund covers a percentage of the cost of author submission fees, to support the ability of researchers to publish in established open access peer-reviewed journals and peer-reviewed journals that have an open access option.

For more information, see the fund description page. To apply for funds, fill out the application form.

PubMed search tool for PMCIDs

Researchers subject to the NIH Public Access Policy take note: there is a new way to discover PMCIDs for articles you need to cite in grant proposals.

PubMed has added a two-way conversion tool between PubMed IDs (PMIDs) and PubMed Central IDs (PMCIDs). It accepts any number of identifiers, to make batch-processing possible.

Remember that citing the PMCID, not the PMID, demonstrates compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy.

Mathematics and Biology Symposium

A Mathematics and Biology Symposium (register here) devoted to data-driven science will be held September 2–3 at the Ebling Symposium Center. From the event summary:

Dramatic, continuing growth in the amounts and types of data available for deep understanding of life is fueling profound advances in the analytical tools and modes of inquiry employed in biological research. This symposium is borne of the conviction that breakthroughs in 21st century biology and biomedicine increasingly will come from strategies based in mathematics, computer sciences, and related disciplines. Similarly, challenges in biological research are providing raw material and impetus for advances in mathematics, statistics, computing, engineering and associated fields. Nurturing these synergistic relationships thus offers profound benefits across the full spectrum of biological, mathematical and physical sciences.

APA stance on the NIH policy under review

The American Psychological Association recently posted a new policy on the APA Journals website informing NIH-funded authors that the APA will invoice their institutions a mandatory $2,500 "deposit fee" to deposit the author's final manuscript into PubMed Central. The policy also stated that authors were not permitted to deposit their manuscripts themselves (which is free).

The policy did not state what embargo period APA would set on the manuscript, but it appears that the APA did not intend to grant rapid open access to the article because of the fee—it was strictly a required deposit charge.

This policy, according to the APA's website, is under review by the APA, and is not currently in effect.

The Scholarly Communication and Publishing Committee is monitoring this situation closely and will post news as it becomes available. For further information, please feel free to contact Julie Schneider.

NIH third-party manuscript submitters may now designate an author of the manuscript to review the submission

NIH recently changed the manuscript approval process for third-party submitters. Previously the grant's PI was responsible for approving any manuscript submissions associated with the PI's NIH grant(s). Now in the final step in the submission process, Step 5 - PDF Approval, the third-party submitter (grant administrator, librarian, etc.) designates a reviewer for the submission. The reviewer must be an author of the manuscript.

NIH Policy Presentations

Julie Schneider, Ebling Library's Assistant Director for Scholarly Communications, will hold information sessions (PowerPoint Presentation) about the NIH Public Access Policy:

• Tuesday, March 18 (noon – 1 pm), Health Sciences Learning Center, Lecture Hall 1335
  
• Wednesday, March 19 (noon – 1 pm), Microbial Sciences Building, Room 1420
  
• Thursday, March 20 (noon – 1 pm), Engineering Centers Building, Tong Auditorium, Room 1003
  
• Thursday, March 27 (8 – 9 am), Health Sciences Learning Center, Lecture Hall 1335
  
• Monday, March 31 (noon – 1 pm), Microbial Sciences Building, Room 1520
  
• Monday, April 7 (noon – 1 pm), Social Sciences Building, Room 8417
  

Learn more about the NIH Policy

New Video on Author's Rights

Watch this two-minute flash video entitled "Author's Rights" to learn more about managing your rights as an author. The video was released by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, in cooperation with the Association of College and Research Libraries and the Association of Research Libraries. It gives a nice overview of the issues you may want to keep in mind when signing a publishing agreement when your article is accepted by a journal.

To retain more of your rights for future control of your intellectual property, the UW-Madison Faculty Senate has endorsed using this Addendum to Publication Agreements for CIC Authors.

NIH Issues Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research

Notice Number NOT-OD-08-033: In accordance with Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110-161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008 ), the NIH voluntary Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-05-022) is now mandatory. The law states:

The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.