Open Science

Your guide to Open Access publishing and Open Science

Category: Open Access Implementation
Forschungs-Campus Garching - Fakultät für Mathematik und Informatik, Die Technische Universität München, Muenchen, Germany, October 24, 2009 | © Courtesy of digital cat.

Open Access May Remedy Traditional Journal Publishing’s Dysfunctional Aspects via Transparency

As both criticisms of academic journal publication practices and recent empirical results suggest, transparency that Open Access (OA) tends to promote is likely to be associated with journal quality, since latest journal citation reports have shown that a significant share of highest-ranking scientific journals in medicine are published in OA. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. In his extensive critique of the journal publication industry made available online in 2013, Mathias Binswager argues against the homogenization of higher education and scientific research that has been taking place in recent decades around the world, such as in Germany and Europe more […]

Launch World Science Report, November 10, 2015 | © Courtesy of UNESCO General Conference and P. Chiang-Joo.

Asian Countries Demonstrate a Strong Presence of Open Access Policies, Repositories and Journals

As a latest survey shows, in Asia Open Access enjoys robust state and institutional support for repositories, consortia memberships and article processing charges funds. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. In their recent survey of Open Access activities in Asia conducted on behalf of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories published in June, 2017, Kathleen Shearer, Kostas Repanas and Kazu Yamaji have put Open Access policies in the context of the rapidly growing scientific profile that Asian countries have, which, according to the 2015 UNESCO World Science Report have their share of global economic output match their proportion of world’s […]

Bay of Naples, Italy, June 4, 2017 | © Courtesy of sarahtarno.

An Interview with Francesco Stoppa on a Geoscience Article Dealing with the Volcanic Activity of Vesuvius

In early 2017, Open Geosciences has published Stoppa et al.’s research results on the historical eruption of Vesuvius in 1631, in which a novel, simplified model of its volcanic activity has been proposed. A Blog Interview by Pablo Markin. While the model proposed by Stoppa et al. (2017) can help predict future volcanic eruptions and explains those that have occurred in the past, it also makes a contribution to the theorization of how volcanoes work. Furthermore, as Prof Karoly Nemeth from the Institute of Agriculture and Environment, Massey University, Palmnerston North, New Zealand, indicates “Vesuvius is in general a reference […]

Entry area of the Library & Learning Center of the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Designed by Zaha Hadid Architects, April 19, 2017 | © Thomas Fabian.

The Performance of the Austrian Science Fund’s Open Access Promotion Policy

Concerted policies of the Austrian Science Fund lead to an overwhelming adoption of Open Access for research publications. A Question and Answer Session with Katharina Rieck and Doris Haslinger. Seeking to inquire into its open access promotion policies, handling of article processing charges and the viability of open access solutions, Pablo Markin has conducted an e-mail interview with Katharina Rieck and Doris Haslinger from the Austrian Science Fund. The Austrian Science Fund, or, in German, Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF), is Austria’s central funding organization for academic research. The purpose of the FWF is to support the ongoing […]

The Elasticity of Demand in Open Access and Conventional Journal Publishing Markets

Recent data show that the demand of both individual scholars and university libraries for the services that journal publishers offer is increasingly elastic. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. In recent months, growing attention has been paid to the article processing charges (APCs) of academic journals. Especially with the advent of open access journal and initiatives, the interaction of these developments with demand in different sectors of the publishing market remains, however, under-analyzed. On the one hand, the presence of open access publishing options drives the costs of academic publications up for individual scholars, which can make them shop around […]

The Old Library of Stift Melk, Austria, June 29, 2008 | © Courtesy of Martin Haesemeyer.

The Austrian Science Fund at the Forefront of Open Access Promotion

The adoption and promotion of Open Access by the Austrian Science Fund promises to cut academic publication costs across the publishing workflow in the long-term. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. As an independent, publicly supported foundation furthering scholarly research, the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) provides research-related, independently peer-reviewed funding in the fields of exact and social sciences as well as humanities and arts that can be applied for in English. As part of this, it supports transition to Gold Open Access (OA) via publication funding, OA deal negotiations and OA model support, especially for non-commercial initiatives. Based on an […]