Monday, February 12, 2024

NIST Research Data Framework and USDA Public Access Plan - febraruy 12, 2024

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) released version 2.0 of its Research Data Framework (RDaF). The RDaF is available as both a publication and interactive web application. The framework is a tool that brings together information and resources on research data to support organizations and individuals in the management and dissemination of data. Version 2.0 expanded subtopics and added more profiles based on community feedback and serves as a comprehensive map of the research data ecosystem. Organizations, including universities, have already begun using earlier versions of the RDaF in their research data management activities. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) opened a second comment period on its draft public access plan and comments will close on February 28th at 5 pm ET. USDA also announced a Q&A Session scheduled for February 20th at 12 pm ET to discuss its draft plan and answer questions. SPARC will be providing public comments and will share them with members as soon as they are submitted. 

Katie Steen-James

SPARC | Manager of Public Policy & Advocacy 

katie@sparcopen.org

816-645-1189 (c)

@katiesteen627

she/her

Tuesday, January 16, 2024

New Open Access Book from eScholarship Publishing: The Art of Diversity by Susan Carlson - January 16, 2024

 

Book cover, yellow background with blue horizontal stripe across the middle. Title, "The Art of Diversity," in blue above the stripe, and subtitle "A Chronicle of Advancing the University of California Faculty through Efforts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion 2010-2022" in yellow on the stripe.

eScholarship Publishing, University of California, announces a new open access book release: The Art of Diversity: A Chronicle of Advancing the University of California Faculty through Efforts in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, 2010–2022 by Susan Carlson.

In this institutional history, Carlson details the University of California’s systemwide efforts to increase the diversity of its faculty during her tenure as Vice Provost, UC Office of the President. It tells the story of a remarkable alignment of California stakeholders—from the UC Regents and University leaders to the Academic Senate and the California legislature, from small faculty teams to multicampus coalitions—and how they worked to create a 21st-century faculty that reflects the diversity of California.

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Monday, November 6, 2023

Open Book Collective: Collective Path Toward an Open and Sustainable Monograph Future - Lidia Uziel - Nov. 6, 2023

 The Open Access (OA) publishing movement is at our doorstep. However, as an academic community, we are not yet ready to fully embrace and support the OA monograph transformation.   Books continue to lag behind journals in terms of OA publishing, infrastructure, and distribution.   The Open Book Collective (OBC) provides some key solutions for the existing challenges while charting a new collective path toward an open and sustainable monograph future.  The proliferation of OA policy mandates and library-funded OA pilots led by academic publishers or scholar-led presses combined with recent developments in infrastructural support for OA book publishing are important milestones […]

The post Open Book Collective: Collective Path Toward an Open and Sustainable Monograph Future appeared first on Office of Scholarly Communication.

Friday, May 26, 2023

FACT SHEET: Biden-⁠Harris Administration Takes New Steps to Advance Responsible Artificial Intelligence Research, Development, and Deployment - May 23, 2023

 Sharing the Fact Sheet released by the White House on May 23, 2023.

 

MAY 23, 2023

FACT SHEET: Biden-Harris Administration Takes New Steps to Advance Responsible Artificial Intelligence Research, Development, and Deployment

Today, the Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new efforts that will advance the research, development, and deployment of responsible artificial intelligence (AI) that protects individuals’ rights and safety and delivers results for the American people.

AI is one of the most powerful technologies of our time, with broad applications. President Biden has been clear that in order to seize the opportunities AI presents, we must first manage its risks. To that end, the Administration has taken significant action to promote responsible AI innovation that places people, communities, and the public good at the center, and manages risks to individuals and our society, security, and economy. This includes the landmark Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights and related executive actions, the AI Risk Management Framework, a roadmap for standing up a National AI Research Resource, active work to address the national security concerns raised by AI, as well as investments and actions announced earlier this month. Last week, the Administration also convened representatives from leading AI companies for a briefing from experts across the national security community on cyber threats to AI systems and best practices to secure high-value networks and information.

Today’s announcements include:

  • An updated roadmap to focus federal investments in AI research and development (R&D): The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) is releasing a National AI R&D Strategic Plan—updated for the first time since 2019—a roadmap that outlines key priorities and goals for federal investments in AI R&D. Developed by experts across the federal government and with public input, this plan makes clear that when it comes to AI, the federal government will invest in R&D that promotes responsible American innovation, serves the public good, protects people’s rights and safety, and upholds democratic values. It will help ensure continued U.S. leadership in the development and use of trustworthy AI systems.
  • A new request for public input on critical AI issues: OSTP is issuing a Request for Information (RFI) to seek input on national priorities for mitigating AI risks, protecting individuals’ rights and safety, and harnessing AI to improve lives. This RFI will support the Administration’s ongoing effort to advance a cohesive and comprehensive strategy to manage AI risks and harness AI opportunities. It complements work happening across the federal government to engage the public on critical AI issues.
  • A new report on the risks and opportunities related to AI in education: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology is releasing a new report, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, summarizing the risks and opportunities related to AI in teaching, learning, research, and assessment. The report recognizes that AI can enable new forms of interaction between educators and students, help educators address variability in learning, increase feedback loops, and support educators. It also underscores the risks associated with AI—including algorithmic bias—and the importance of trust, safety, and appropriate guardrails.

In addition to these new announcements, the White House is hosting a listening session with workers today to hear firsthand experiences with employers’ use of automated technologies for surveillance, monitoring, evaluation, and management. The listening session will include workers representing diverse sectors of the economy, including call centers, trucking, warehousing, health care, and gig work, as well as policy experts, researchers, and policymakers. This listening session follows an RFI released by OSTP earlier this month to advance the Administration’s understanding of the design, deployment, prevalence, and impacts of automated technologies that monitor and track workers.

Monday, April 3, 2023

Two new integrations from arXivLabs - March 29, 2023

 arXivLabs has introduced two new integrations:

  • Influence Flower provides a visualization of the flow of academic influence

  • DagsHub provides a central hub for project hosting, discovery & collaboration.

    • Projects related to arXiv papers will contain all code, data, models, and experiments to allow for full reproducibility

 

Tuesday, March 7, 2023

ORCID at UF: The University of Florida’s response to NSPM-33 - February 25, 2023

 ORCID at UF: The University of Florida’s response to NSPM-33

February 23, 2025   Lyrasis - ORCID US

"The University of Florida (UF) became an ORCID member organization in 2017 initially through the Greater Western Library Alliance (GWLA) consortium, prior to joining the ORCID US Community consortium in 2018. This blog post is based on a presentation by Stephanie Gray, Assistant Vice President & Director of Sponsored Programs, and Karen Pastos, Project Manager, for the ORCID US Community Webinar: ORCID & NSPM-33 (National Security Presidential Memo 33) on July 21, 2022. Many thanks to Stephanie and Karen for sharing their experience, as well as Jordan Edwards, Database Administrator, for developing the custom ORCID API integration described below.

The University of Florida is a large public land grant university in Gainesville, Florida comprised of 16 colleges, with 5,818 faculty, 9,682 staff, 53,372 students, and ~3,000 key personnel on federal awards/proposals receiving $1.076 billion in research expenditures fiscal year 2022. So, when NSPM-33 made it clear that federal funding agencies would soon be using ORCID to identify researchers and enable more efficient disclosures (either optionally or required), staff in the research office (UF Research) began to take note, looking at how the University could prepare for changes to sponsor requirements and reduce administrative burden for faculty seeking federal funding."  (more)

Wednesday, January 11, 2023

Images, Copyright, and the Future of Digital Publishing in the Arts - UC OSC - Katie Fortney - Jan 11, 2023

 This article was first published in Refract: An Open Access Visual Studies Journal, in the special supplement “Imagining the Future of Digital Publishing.“ Publishing in many arts disciplines is enriched by, and may rely on, the use of images. Authors have long found the hurdles and the fees for using these images to be daunting, and the move to digital publishing can make this problem worse. Open access publishing can prove even more challenging. If scholarship in art history, art criticism, visual studies and other fields is going to thrive in a future where digital and open access publishing are []

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