Scholarly Communication and Publishing News

Non-Roman-alphabet works exempt from NIH Public Access Policy

2009-11-02T10:16:00.001-06:00

According to the National Institutes of Health:

Until further notice, only papers written in Latin script will be collected via the NIH Manuscript Submission System for the NIH Public Access Policy. Acceptable papers also may contain characters and fonts used in standard mathematical notation. However, until further technical solutions are developed, papers written in scripts other than Latin (e.g., Russian, Japanese) cannot be processed by NIHMS and are not required to be posted on PubMed Central. Papers written in scripts other than Latin do not require a PMCID when cited in NIH applications, proposals or reports. http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-10-009.html

NIH Public Access Policy made permanent

2009-03-13T08:00:00.001-05:00

President Obama yesterday signed into law the 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes a provision making the National Institutes’ of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy permanent. The NIH Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access requires eligible NIH-funded researchers to deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine’s online archive, PubMed Central (PMC). Full texts of the articles are made publicly available and searchable online in PMC no later than 12 months after publication in a journal.

The NIH policy was previously implemented with a provision that was subject to annual renewal. Since the implementation of the revised policy the percentage of eligible manuscripts deposited into PMC has increased significantly, with over 3,000 new manuscripts being deposited each month. The PubMed Central database is a part of a valuable set of public database resources at the NIH, which are accessed by more than 2 million users each day.

(via SPARC)

International Symposium on Peer Reviewing

2009-02-24T08:58:00.003-06:00

From the announcement for the International Symposium on Peer Reviewing:

Only 8% members of the Scientific Research Society agreed that "peer review works well as it is". (Chubin and Hackett, 1990; p.192).
"A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision and an analysis of the peer review system substantiate complaints about this fundamental aspect of scientific research." (Horrobin, 2001)
Horrobin concludes that peer review "is a non-validated charade whose processes generate results little better than does chance." (Horrobin, 2001). This has been statistically proven and reported by an increasing number of journal editors.
But, "Peer Review is one of the sacred pillars of the scientific edifice" (Goodstein, 2000), it is a necessary condition in quality assurance for Scientific/Engineering publications, and "Peer Review is central to the organization of modern science…why not apply scientific [and engineering] methods to the peer review process" (Horrobin, 2001).
This is the purpose of the International Symposium on Peer Reviewing: ISPR being organized in the context of The 3rd International Conference on Knowledge Generation, Communication and Management: KGCM 2009, which will be held on July 10-13, 2009, in Orlando, Florida, USA.

Legal Education Commons launches

2009-01-30T09:54:00.001-06:00

The Legal Education Commons , a source of open-access, full-text teaching materials for law school courses, was launched on January 26 by the Center for Computer-Assisted Legal Instruction (CALI) and Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet & Society. See the CALI announcement here and the Berkman announcement here. The Legal Education Commons (LEC) reportedly contains more than 700,000 full text cases and other court documents, plus approximately 300 illustrations from CALI tutorials. The copyrighted materials in the Commons are governed by a Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license (BY-SA).

Open Access Day is October 14!

2008-10-09T14:35:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-26T10:19:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-14T13:53:00.002-05:00

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

2008-08-13T12:17:00.002-05:00

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

2008-07-17T11:35:00.003-05:00

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

2008-07-15T11:33:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-17T14:13:00.000-05:00

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

2008-03-03T14:12:00.000-06:00

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

2008-01-04T14:11:00.000-06:00

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.

Faculty Senate Passes Author Rights Resolution

2007-05-08T12:00:00.000-05:00

On May 7, 2007, the Faculty Senate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison unanimously approved a resolution in support of assisting university authors in managing their publishing rights and agreements.

The resolution supports the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC) Provosts' Statement on Publishing Agreements and encourages the use of the addendum to publication agreements for CIC authors to ensure that academic authors retain certain intellectual property rights that facilitate archiving, instructional use, and sharing with colleagues to advance discourse and discovery.
The resolution was developed and submitted to the Faculty Senate by the University Library Committee, a standing committee of the Faculty Senate. University librarians will take a leading role in these discussions and also encourage faculty members to become engaged.

Seed Money for Open Access Publishing established

2006-08-01T12:00:00.000-05:00

The UW-Madison Libraries have can now provide seed money to support open-access publication fees and digital publishing by faculty and academic staff.
Libraries have been supporting alternative publishing models in partnership with UW faculty, staff, and students for the past several years. With the establishment of the Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing (SCP), UW-Madison librarians will begin publicizing the availability of funding support for open-access publishing as a part of their outreach and liaison activities.
Read more about the Open Access Fund

Journal of Insect Science comes to UW-Madison

2005-11-01T14:07:00.000-06:00

After operating for five years under the aegis of the University of Arizona Library, the Journal of Insect Science became the first serial publication to be hosted by the UW-Madison’s Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing. Founded by editor-in-chief Dr. Henry Hagedorn, JIS is a professionally refereed journal of international scope on the “biology of insects and other arthropods.” Freely accessible online to academics and others, JIS is both managed and published using open source software designed to make the most of open access publishing options and minimize the drudgery of editorial management. A very welcome partner, JIS will serve as a model for UW scholars and researchers interested in posting the proceedings of their work in a global open access environment.

Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing launched!

2005-08-01T12:00:00.001-05:00

The Office of Scholarly Communication and Publishing (SCP) of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries was established in 2005 in response to a faculty senate resolution addressing the unsustainable financial demands of academic publishing, the desire by faculty to retain and better manage usage rights to their research output, the interest of the libraries to explore innovative, alternative publishing methods, and the rising national call to maximize access to and, therefore, the impact of publicly-sponsored research. Under the direction of the Library Services Council and the leadership of the program coordinators, Wayne Hayes and Julie Schneider, the SCP will work to identify and assess the research output of the UW campus, organize activities to archive locally created scholarly content in relevant local and national repositories, assist faculty in limiting the transfer of their copyrights by modifying publisher contracts, and influence scholarly publishing by advocating the creation of open access journals and locally produced digital publications.