Springer Nature Transformative Open Access Agreement - Dec. 17, 2020

 In June 2020, the University of California (UC) and Springer Nature announced that they have entered into a groundbreaking transformative open access agreement, the first such agreement Springer Nature has established in the United States, and the largest transformative open access agreement in North America to date.  The agreement will enable UC authors who publish with Springer Nature to make their research freely available to the world to read, and will also expand UC’s access to Springer Nature’s subscription journals. Through the agreement, the UC libraries are providing funding to support open access publishing fees for UC authors who publish with Springer Nature journals (including fully covering those fees for authors who do not have research funds available for this purpose) by redirecting funds previously devoted to subscription fees. In addition, the agreement adds reading access to more than 1,000 journals in Springer Nature’s portfolio, along with perpetual access rights to all journals for which there is read access. 

Agreement Basics

This four-year agreement runs from 2020 through 2023, and incorporates open access publishing in support of UC’s mission. In addition, it expands UC’s reading access to 1,000 more Springer titles, and upholds the university’s goal to manage its costs for academic journal subscriptions responsibly.  

I have a paper that was published with Springer in 2020.  Will that be covered by the agreement?

Unfortunately, we are unable to apply this agreement retroactively to papers accepted for publication in 2020. Before articles could be included under the agreement, we needed to formalize the workflow and contract details. 

The publishing aspects of the agreement will be implemented in two phases. 

Phase I: to begin in January 2021 —  Open access with UC libraries contribution to open access publishing fees 

Phase II starts in 2022 and involves the integration of Nature branded journals into the open access publishing part of the agreement

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Open Library of Humanities - September 17, 2020

Open Library of Humanities (OLH) is a sustainable scholar-led consortial funding model for Gold Open Access in the humanities without publication fees.

"It is a charitable organization dedicated to publishing world-leading open-access humanities scholarship with no author-facing article processing charges. Launched in 2015, its free-to-read, free-to-publish model was set up to revolutionize the field of open access publishing. Five years on, the sustainable business model has attracted nearly 300 supporting institutions, with further revenue generated through hosting on our in-house open source publishing platform Janeway, enabling it to establish a thriving platform of 28 peer-reviewed open access journals. Its mission is to support and extend open access to scholarship in the humanities - for free, for everyone, forever."

 

Wired - Universities Step Up the Fight for Open-Access Research - June 16, 2020

Universities Step Up the Fight for Open-Access Research

Today’s deal between the University of California and publisher Springer Nature is a big milestone on the path to dismantling paywalls around academic journals.

"University of California officials have announced their intention to make a deal with Springer Nature, the world’s second-largest publisher, to begin publishing the university system’s research as open-access by default.

The deal starts in 2021 for a large number of the company’s journals—and puts UC on the path, at least, to do so for all its journals within two years, including its most prestigious ones, like Nature."

more 

Science advisors call for open access to COVID-19 research - March 13, 2020

THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of Science and Technology Policy

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 13, 2020

President Trump’s Science Advisor and Government Science Leaders from Around the World call on Publishers to make all COVID-19-Related Research Publically Available 

Publically Available Research and Data is More Important than Ever as we Combat the COVID-19 Outbreak

Today, the Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and Member of President Trump’s Coronavirus Task Force, Dr. Kelvin Droegemeier, and government science leaders including science ministers and chief science advisors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, the Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Singapore, and the United Kingdom are asking publishers to make all COVID-19-related research and data immediately available to the public. 

“We, as national leaders on science policy, applaud the efforts of researchers to understand and prevent the infection and spread of COVID-19. We also greatly appreciate the funders and publishers who play the important role of supporting, reviewing, and communicating research outcomes and making publications and data available to the global community for scientific research and public awareness.

“To assist efforts to contain and mitigate the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, basic science research and innovation will be vital to addressing this global crisis. Given the urgency of the situation, it is particularly important that scientists and the public can access research outcomes as soon as possible.  The countries listed below urge publishers to voluntarily agree to make their COVID-19 and coronavirus-related publications, and the available data supporting them, immediately accessible in PubMed Central and other appropriate public repositories, such as the World Health Organization’s COVID database, to support the ongoing public health emergency response efforts,” the government science leaders wrote in the call-to-action.

Science leaders requested that existing and new articles be made available in machine-readable format to allow full text and data mining with rights accorded for research re-use and secondary analysis. This will allow researchers to apply artificial intelligence to answer critical questions and identify trends and relevant information in their efforts to characterize this novel virus and address the global health crisis.

Please find the full transcript to the scholarly publishing community attached.

For more information about the Coronavirus, please visit:https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html.

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University of California Libraries Adopt Ex Libris Higher-Ed Cloud Platform to Facilitate Access to Collections and Systemwide Collaboration - March 3, 2020

The Ex Libris Alma platform and Primo solution will help UC campus libraries, regional storage facilities, and the California Digital library collaborate more efficiently, while also enhancing their end-user experience

Chicago, Illinois—March 3, 2020. Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is pleased to announce that the University of California (UC) Libraries have selected the Ex Libris Alma^® library services platform and Ex Libris Primo^® discovery and delivery solution to deploy a systemwide integrated library system (SILS).

Currently, the maintenance of many independent but interconnected library and resource sharing systems at UC provides diminishing returns, resulting in higher system resource investments and lost opportunities to innovate and enhance the libraries’ services. The Ex Libris higher-ed cloud platform will help the UC Libraries scale efficiently, providing the technological infrastructure to support more than 2,000 library staff members who serve 330,000 students and academic employees across 100 libraries.

The Alma cloud-based platform will help the libraries improve the faculty and student end-user experience in discovering and accessing items in UC’s vast physical and electronic collections. The libraries will also be able to take advantage of business intelligence that feeds a data-driven approach to library management and development, and will benefit from the operational efficiencies and transformative opportunities enjoyed when a systemwide approach is taken.

In addition, the Ex Libris Primo solution will provide the UC Libraries with a discovery interface and central index of metadata that directs users to both local and systemwide resources.

“Even in its formative stage, the SILS project has brought about close collaboration among the UC Libraries. This contract enables us to build on that foundation and reimagine how we serve our communities and how we go about our work,” said Chris Shaffer and Günter Waibel, co-chairs of the UC SILS project.

Reflecting on the positive impact on library staff, UC’s Council of University Librarians Chair M. Elizabeth Cowell added, “To date and moving forward, the SILS project provides professional development opportunities for library staff as we all learn what this collaboration means to the UC Libraries and the variety of expertise needed to ensure its success.”

“We are happy that the Alma platform and Primo solution will assist the University of California Libraries in advancing innovation and enhancing access to their vast collections,” said Eric Hines, president of Ex Libris North America. “Collaborating to develop shared services will eliminate the duplication of effort and help the librarians throughout the university tap into their collective expertise.”

About the University of California Libraries  

Individually and collectively, the University of California Libraries provide access to the world’s knowledge for the UC campuses and the communities they serve, directly supporting UC’s missions of teaching, research and public service. The University of California Libraries, which include some of the world’s most distinctive collections and innovative services, constitute the largest university research library in the world.

About Ex Libris

Ex Libris, a ProQuest company, is a leading global provider of cloud-based SaaS solutions that enable institutions and their individual users to create, manage, and share knowledge. In close collaboration with its customers and the broader community, Ex Libris develops creative solutions that increase library productivity, maximize the impact of research activities, enhance teaching and learning, and drive student mobile engagement. Ex Libris serves over 7,500 customers in 90 countries. For more information, see our website and join us on LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter.

Elsevier - Testing a new approach to open access fees - March 3, 2020

New OA payment models are needed make open access implementation practical, journal editor says
By Ian Evans - March 3, 2020

A strategy for a large commercial journal to deal with heavy rejection rates.

A model adopted by the European Economic Review (EER) Plus. The EPC model his journal is piloting offers an affordable option for researchers with limited access to funds. The charge is set low – at €527, where some article processing charges will be upwards of €4,000 – and unlike a submission fee, the author only pays if their paper is selected for peer review. However, that fee is non-refundable if the article is rejected at the peer review stage.

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PLOS CEO Alison Mudditt discusses new OA agreement with the University of California - Feb. 20, 2020

The Public Library of Science (PLOS) and the University of California (UC) have announced a two-year agreement designed to make it easier and more affordable for UC researchers to publish in the non-profit open-access publisher’s suite of seven journals.

Under the agreement – which is planned to go into effect this Spring – UC Libraries will automatically pay the first $1,000 of the article processing charge (APC) incurred when UC authors choose to publish in a PLOS journal.

Authors who do not have research funds available can request UC Libraries pay the full APC fee. The aim is to ensure that lack of research funds does not present a barrier for UC authors wishing to publish with PLOS.

The pilot is intended to test whether an institutional participation model that leverages multiple funding sources, rather than only grant funds, can provide a sustainable and inclusive path to full open access.

PLOS CEO Alison Mudditt discusses the new agreement and addresses some of the issues that the current trend for universities and consortia to sign so-called transformative agreements with legacy publishers raises for native open-access publishers like PLOS.

https://poynder.blogspot.com/2020/02/plos-ceo-alison-mudditt-discusses-new.html

Open Access Citation Advantage - Jon Tenant - Publications on Impact OA Availability - February 19, 2020

The Open Access Citation Advantage by Jon Tennant

A collection of studies that have investigated the potential Open Access citation advantage. The majority, to date, have concluded that there is a significant citation advantage for Open Access articles. Much of the data here is sourced from The Open Access Citation Advantage Service, SPARC Europe (accessed August 2017)

View Collection Details

SPARC Europe - Setting the Default to Open - OACA List

ACRL’s Publications in Librarianship Monograph Series Announces First Open Peer Review - February 12, 2020

ACRL’s Publications in Librarianship Monograph Series Announces First Open Peer Review

February 12, 2020

ACRL’s Publications in Librarianship (PIL) series—a peer-reviewed collection of books that examine emerging theories and research—is launching its first open peer review, for Stories of Open: Opening Peer Review through Narrative Inquiry by Emily Ford.

“Open access, open data, open science, and other ‘open’ initiatives bring democratization and transparency to scholarly publishing and access to information,” said PIL Editor Daniel C. Mack. “Rather than limiting the assessment and evaluation of research to a single editor or editorial board, open peer review empowers the entire community of scholars to participate in the review process. Stories of Open presents readers with a thought-provoking introduction to open peer review; we couldn’t imagine a better manuscript for our pilot open review.”

The manuscript is open for comment through Monday, March 23, 2020. It is available for review in two places, and we welcome and encourage your participation: First, via Google documents here, where participants will need to use their Google account and request access at the top left before commenting. Doing so means agreeing to the reviewer’s code of conduct. A PDF version of the manuscript is available for review on the ACRL site. Comments should be sent to Daniel C. Mack at dmack@umd.edu.

Stories of Open is expected to publish in early 2021. Previous PIL books can be found in the ALA Store; information on publishing in the series is here. Questions on the review, process, or publishing with ACRL can be sent to ACRL Content Strategist Erin Nevius at enevius@ala.org.

UN Library launches new linked data services platform: metadata.un.org - January 14, 2020

The Dag Hammarskjöld Library is pleased to announce the launch of their new linked data services platform: metadata.un.org.  Linked data is structured data interlinked with other data, making it more discoverable and searchable through semantic queries. 

Metadata.un.org currently hosts the Library’s UNBIS Thesaurus and the Department of Economic and Social Affairs’ taxonomy of Sustainable Development Goals identifiers.   More linked data services and taxonomies will be hosted on metadata.un.org as they become available.

The UNBIS Thesaurus is a database of controlled vocabulary used by UN programmes, funds, and regional commissions to describe the UN’s published output (parliamentary documents, publications, reports, etc.). The new platform provides a revamped interface with increased functionality in the six official UN languages.  Its controlled vocabulary makes subject searches possible by identifying materials on the same concept consistently, despite terminology changes over time. 

DESA’s SDG Taxonomy was produced in collaboration with groups from across the UN system.  They developed a system of Internationalized Resource Identifiers (IRIs) for the SDGs, the related targets and indicators, related entities linking to UNBIS Thesaurus terms,  as well as the SDG Interface Ontology, maintained by UN Environment. These common identifiers are deployed to provide a key element of infrastructure that will allow UN system organizations and relevant stakeholders to map their SDG resources to the growing pool of knowledge about the SDGs available on the semantic web.  

We welcome feedback on this new service. 

Taylor & Francis Acquires F1000 Research - January 12, 2020

"Leading specialist academic publisher Taylor & Francis Group, part of Informa plc, has today announced the addition of cutting-edge open research publisher F1000 Research Ltd."

"“The addition of F1000 Research significantly strengthens and extends our capabilities in open research and broader publishing services. It also brings with it a strong culture of innovation and challenging the status quo. This will be invaluable as we evolve to meet the research needs of the 21st century; offering options to create the impact needed to convert research into solutions quickly,” says Annie Callanan, Chief Executive of Taylor & Francis."

"Whilst continuing to operate independently, F1000 Research will become a key component of Taylor & Francis’s range of open research services and Plan S-compliant platforms, complementing its extensive and growing portfolio of Open Access journals and supporting the company’s ethos of evolving to deliver what researchers across the world expect by championing choice, whatever their field of research or source of funding.

[Clip]

Vitek Tracz, founder of F1000 Research and Chairman of Science Navigation Group said:

“The default way for researchers to share their findings, the Research Journal, is evolving. F1000 Research proposed an efficient, transparent mechanism to respond to the rapidly growing range of needs and opportunities in the way information is shared. The task now needs input and support from a more established partner and I am happy that in the leadership of Taylor & Francis and Informa, we have found a team who understands and is committed to continuing this evolution.”

[Clip]

F1000Prime and F1000Workspace are not included in this transaction and will continue under the ownership of Vitek Tracz.

Link to Full Text Announcement and Blog Post by Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director, F1000 at:

https://www.infodocket.com/2020/01/10/scholarly-publishing-taylor-francis-acquires-f1000-research/

or

https://newsroom.taylorandfrancisgroup.com/f1000-research-joins-taylor-francis/
https://blog.f1000.com/2020/01/10/f1000research-flies-the-nest/