Open Science

Your guide to Open Access publishing and Open Science

Category: Open Access Implementation
Berkeley - UC Berkeley: Bancroft Library, CA, USA, February 26, 2012 | © Courtesy of Wally Gobetz.

As Journal Subscription Fees Exhaust Library Budgets, Universities Mandate Open Access Preprint Repository Publishing

Given that at some universities, such as the University of California San Francisco, journal subscriptions consume approximately 85% of collections budgets, switching to Open Access peer-reviewed pre-print repositories becomes an enticing alternative to toll-based scientific journals. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. The financial data of the University of California San Francisco for the year 2017 tally up its annual spending on collective and specialist journal subscriptions at 60 million USD, which leaves only 15% of budgets which its branch and online libraries have to share for other content acquisitions. These figures showcase the situation of university and research libraries […]

A university viewpoint, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham, UK, July 18, 2017 | © Courtesy of Damien Walmsley.

Hybrid Open Access Journals Could Facilitate Transitions to Gold Open Access Models in the Publishing Industry

As recent literature reviews and findings from the United Kingdom higher education institutions suggest, for universities the costs of publishing in hybrid Open Access journals is significantly higher than in Gold Open Access ones, due to optional article processing charges (APCs) for Open Access publishing and subscription fees they involve, even though APC-based Open Access journals have been found to demonstrate higher impact factors and submission performance than Open Access journals without APCs. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. In his analysis of the Open Access market published online on February 19, 2017, Bo-Christer Björk suggests that the Open Access […]

Night at Cigli - Izmir, Turkey, September 10, 2010 | © Courtesy of Ceyhun (Jay) Isik.

Open Source Software Adds to Collaboration, Transparency and Reproducibility in Archaeology

A recent empirical study by Néhémie Strupler and Toby C. Wilkinson demonstrates that openly accessible digital tools, such as open-source Git and R platforms, can increase the transparency of archaeological fieldwork, while adding methodological rigor to its procedures. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. While archaeology as a science is associated with limitations to the open dissemination, controlled reproduction and independent validation of its findings, the principles of Open Science, as Strupler and Wilkinson argue in their research article published in October 2017 in the Open Access journal Open Archaeology, can contribute to the mitigation of these methodology shortcomings this […]

Open Access is the New Black: Case Study Data on Journal Transitions from Subscription Models to Open Access

Serial crisis, growing resistance to subscription models as well as increasingly widespread and binding Open Access (OA) mandates have incentivized numerous publishers to consider converting paywall-based journals to OA. A Blog Article by Beata Socha. Flipping a journal into Open Access (OA) naturally involves numerous challenges but it is a path increasingly travelled by publishers. In 2014 De Gruyter converted a portfolio of 14 journals from the subscription model to OA. In 2017, three years on, rather compelling observations can be made as to how to make the transition smooth and successful. This post is based on the webinar that […]

Max-Planck-Institut für die Physik des Lichts, Germany, June 24, 2017 | © Courtesy of Christoph Settgast.

German Editors-In-Chief and Editorial Board Members Resign from Subscription-Based Elsevier-Owned Journals

First eight German researchers and scientists have announced their resignation from editorial duties at Elsevier-supported journals on the background of the ongoing efforts of Germany-based universities and research institutes to switch to Open Access. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. As the negotiations over subscription contracts between Elsevier, a large journal publisher, and Germany-based scientific and academic institutions continue to bear no fruits, a growing number of leading German editors and editorial board members at paywall-based journals associated with this publisher announce resignations from their positions. Multiple other German scientists and researchers are reportedly ready to follow suit, in their […]

Top 10 Tech Trends for 2010, May 19, 2010 | © Courtesy of Steve Jurvetson.

Richard Thaler, Nobel Prize-Related Economics Award Winner, has also Advocated in Favor of Open Data Access

While upon his 2017 prize nomination, Richard H. Thaler has received recognition for his contributions to behavioral economics, he has also argued that open data initiatives can bring public and private benefits alike. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. On October 9, 2017, the University of Chicago Booth School of Business has announced that Richard H. Thaler, its Charles R. Walgreen Distinguished Service Professor of Behavioral Science and Economics, has received the vaunted 2017 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel. This award has celebrated Thaler’s work in behavioral economics that takes account of the non-rationality […]