Open Access in the News
Feature: Harvard’s success story with Robert Darnton
In October 2008 Harvard University in the US adopted an open access policy for all its research papers to be made available in their university repository, in an opt out basis. 12 months on, since the policy was adopted, JISC’s Rebecca O’Brien speaks with Professor Robert Darnton, Director of Harvard University Library and trustee of New York Public Library and the Oxford University Press (USA), about the cultural change that is taking place at Harvard and the background to why professors at the university decided to share their knowledge in this way.
5 February 2010 - Online Guide to Open Access Journals Publishing Launches. Co-Action Publishing and Lund University Libraries Main Office announced the launch of the Online Guide to Open Access Journals Publishing at http://www.doaj.org/bpguide.
January 2010 - UUK SUPPORTS OPEN ACCESS FOR REF CONTENT. As part of the Universities UK response to HEFCE's consultation on the Research Excellence Framework, UUK's reponse contains the following endorsement of an open access approach to the assessment process: "UUK supports the move toward 'open access' of research outputs and, although not mentioned in the consultation, would encourage the REF guidance to require that all submitted outputs are available through some form of open access mechanism. This would build on good research and information management practice. Work currently being undertaken by JISC and other stakeholders can support this process."
From mid-December 2009 to mid-January 2010 the Obama Administration ran an open consultation on public access to federally-funded research outputs. Our US colleagues regard this initiative as very significant, the "Request for Information" procedure used signalling the Administration's serious interest in making a policy change. The consultation received a substantial response indicating the importance of access to US research for researchers working collaboratively world-wide and also mirrors the resonse to the European Commission's request for comment on open access in 2006. More information. Harvard response to White House RFI on public access policies January 22nd, 2010.
12 November 2009 - Learning to share, Times Higher article debating Open Access publishing models, the publishers' take on them and the ramifications for journal and book publications.
10 November 2009 - Open Science - the future for research? As part of JISC's 'Research 3.0 - driving the knowledge economy' activity which launches at the end of November, a new Open Science report released today trails key research trends that could have far-reaching implications for science, universities and UK society.
19-23 October 2009 - International Open Access Week sparked large numbers of events, announcements and similar awareness-raising activities including a series of events at the University of Cambridge. Highlights were Yale ISP Celebrating Open Access Week with New Research, the announcement of German Research Foundation Funding for University Author Funds, and a press release from the Wellcome Trust commenting on the Wellcome Trust wishing "to see a commitment from publishers to show the uptake of their open access option and to adjust their subscription rates to reflect increases in income from open access fees."
18 June 2009 - Time Higher reports on "Publisher 'threat' to open access"
16 June 2009 - Harvard's 4th Open Access mandate - The faculty of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HGSE) voted overwhelmingly at its last faculty meeting to allow the university to make all faculty members' scholarly articles publicly available online.
4 June 2009 - University College London is set to become the first of the top tier of elite European universities to embrace open access with institution-wide mandate. The institution announced this week that all its researchers will have to deposit their papers in UCL's online repository, where they will be accessible free of charge.
30 April 2009 - A Times Higher Education (THE) writes that research councils are looking at what more they can do to support open access to research results
11 February 2009 Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), the last of the seven Research Councils UK has agreed to mandate open access publication to its researchers.
14 October 2008 sees the launch of the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA). The mission of OASPA is to support and represent the interests of Open Access (OA) journals publishers globally in all scientific, technical, and scholarly disciplines through an exchange of information, setting of industry standards, advancing business and publishing models, advocating for gold OA journals publishing, education and the promotion of innovation.
Oct-Nov 2008 "A course in open access" - How the Open University is taking the publishers out of scholarly publishing. Computer Weekly
5 September 2008 Bloomsbury Publishing announced today that it is launching into academic publishing with a new imprint: Bloomsbury Academic. The imprint will be using a radically new model. All titles will be made available free of charge online, with free downloads, for non-commercial purposes, immediately upon publication, using Creative Commons licences. The works will also be sold as books, using latest short-run technologies or Print on Demand (POD).
In June 2008 Stanford University School of Education passed the Open Access Motion in a move designed to broaden access to faculty research and scholarship. The policy requires its faculty members to make their scholarly articles available for free to the public.
In May 2008 Harvard Law School adopted an open access publishing policy following Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences' move from February 2008.
As from 7 April 2008 the NIH Public Access Policy requires scientists to submit journal articles that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central.
Six UK Research Councils (AHRC, BBSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC, STFC) have to date made open access dissemination of research outputs a requirement of any grant.
From October 2006, the Wellcome Trust has required all Trust-funded researchers to make their peer-reviewed research papers available through PubMed Central (PMC). Read more on this issue on our funders' mandates page.
Three UK Universities have to date mandated the deposit of research publications into the Institutional Repositories (University of Stirling, University of Southampton, Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh).