Open Science

Your guide to Open Access publishing and Open Science

Category: Open Access Models
Optical Society Event, the University of California, Irvine, CA, USA, December 9, 2015 | © Courtesy of UCI Applied Innovation/Flickr.

The Role of Open Access at Scholarly Conferences as Platforms for Scientific Development Might be Underappreciated

As academic conferences become increasingly important vehicles for scientific collaborations and partnerships, Open Access can further the dissemination of cutting-edge findings, especially in the Global South. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. Non-profit scientific organizations, such as the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC), perceive international academic conferences as important means for developing collaborations in both subscription-based and Open Access sector, as various Open Access formats, e.g., Gold Open Access, gain increasing traction across scientific communities. In this context, both for-profit and non-profit journal publishers have been trialling read-and-publish agreement with universities and libraries in the Open Access sector. In this […]

Fermilab 011, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, Chicago, Illinois, USA, September 5, 2009 | © Courtesy of Michael Kappel/Flickr.

Open Access Translates into Revenue Streams, As Scholarly Associations and Funders Enter into Framework Agreements

As hybrid Open Access models fuel the uptake of Open Access among researchers, publishers roll out experimental agreements that combine subscription charges with Gold Open Access, as part of institutional memberships, while adding to model sustainability. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. A recent publishing market report indicates that, whereas between 2015 and 2017 the annual growth rate of the scholarly journal market has slightly exceeded 1%, in the same period the Open Access sector has demonstrated double-digit expansion, even though with signification variation between publishers. Whereas the overall growth rate in the Open Access journal publishing sector has been […]

Raynard Raphael Lao at TEDxXavierSchool: Innovation Built on Tradition, Xavier School, Manila, the Philippines, February 18, 2012 | © Courtesy of Mark Celvin A. Esquibel/Martin Gomez/Flickr.

As Countries and Regional Blocks Make Open Science a Priority, the Developmental Potential of Open Access Comes into Relief

August scientific journals flipped into Open Access and Open Science mandates’ expansion plans, such as in the European Union and United States, create a momentum not only for journal subscription deal cuts, but also for the recognition that paywalls hinder access to critical knowledge and its application in developing countries. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. As the highly reputed Philippine Journal of Science, founded in 1906, covering natural, applied, exact and social sciences was transitioned to Open Access in early June, 2018, it also drew attention to the parlous state of largely underfunded science in the Philippines. Given that […]

NASA's Hyperwall at the U.S. Exhibition Stand at GEO-X, Group on Earth Observations Summit, Geneva, Switzerland, January 14, 2014 | © Courtesy of United States Mission Geneva/Eric Bridiers/Flickr.

While Global Data on Open Access Show Consistency Across Databases, Significant Cross-Country Differences Remain

In their recent working paper, published at ArXiv on March 16, 2018, Alberto Martín-Martín et al. have found that effective Open Access to articles indexed by Google Scholar can reach more than 54% with important variation in findings for different access formats, subject areas and geographic areas. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. In their pre-print paper yet awaiting peer review results, even through its initial version is already available via the repository, Alberto Martín-Martín, Rodrigo Costas, Thed van Leeuwen, and Emilio Delgado López-Cózar have found that, if scholars have a ResearchGate account, they can enjoy free access to 40.6% […]

Lund architecture, Lund University library building, Lund, Sweden, September 27, 2015 | © Courtesy of barnyz/Flickr.

As Universities are Increasingly Entering the Open Access Publishing Frey, Resistance to Closed Access is Set to Spread

As the London School of Economics is in the works to launch its own Open Access publishing platform, country-level associations of university libraries may be deciding to flip to Open Access on the basis of cost-benefit analyses of this model vis-à-vis subscription contract costs, as recently occurred in Sweden. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. As the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) gears up to launch LSE Press, its own platform for Open Access publishing, it enters into competition with major publishing houses for market share in the online journal sector. The platform will be managed jointly […]

Academiegebouw, Groningen, Netherlands, August 9, 2008 © Courtesy of Bert Kaufmann/Flickr.

Though Overall Global Open Access Levels Declined in 2017, Gold and Hybrid Open Access Follow Upward Trajectories

Paradoxically, though the 2017 levels of Open Access article output have markedly declined across geographic regions and academic fields, the underlying trends tentatively point to the growing or stable levels of Gold Open Access over the last decade with rising levels of hybrid Open Access in recent years, based on university-level data from the Netherlands. A recent report indicates possible reasons for these developments. A Blog Article by Pablo Markin. In their preprint article published on January 11, 2018, Jeroen Bosman and Bianca Kramer have presented the results of their qualitative inquiry into the yearly levels of Open Access based […]