"Although MalariaGEN was founded with open access in mind, it was clear that the development of an effective, appropriate approach to GWA data release required widespread consultation across the network and with external stakeholders (see Figure 1). In what follows, we outline some of the key issues arising during this process and how these were addressed...."

abs: After two decades of repository development, some conclusions may be drawn as to which type of repository and what kind of service best supports digital scholarly communication, and thus the production of new knowledge. Four types of publication repository may be distinguished, namely the subject-based repository, research repository, national repository system and institutional repository. Two important shifts in the role of repositories may be noted. With regard to content, a well-defined and high quality corpus is essential. This implies that repository services are likely to be most successful when constructed with the user and reader uppermost in mind. With regard to service, high value to specific scholarly communities is essential. This implies that repositories are likely to be most useful to scholars when they offer dedicated services supporting the production of new knowledge. Along these lines, challenges and barriers to repository development may be identified in three key dimensions: a) identification and deposit of content; b) access and use of services; and c) preservation of content and sustainability of service. An indicative comparison of challenges and barriers in some major world regions such as Europe, North America and East Asia plus Australia is offered in conclusion.

"As the researchers acknowledge in their paper, the work couldn't have taken place if it weren't for extensive data sharing within the community of flu virus researchers."

"In the first three months of 2009, the English-language Wikipedia suffered a net loss of more than 49,000 editors, compared to a net loss of 4,900 during the same period a year earlier, according to Spanish researcher Felipe Ortega, who analyzed Wikipedia's data on the editing histories of its more than three million active contributors in 10 languages...."

You can go directly to the 11 page document at: http://wo.ala.org/gbs/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/A-Guide-for-the-Perplexed-Part-III-FINAL.pdf

"The Presidents of six public universities in New England have issued a letter of support for the Federal Research Public Access Act (S.1373), demonstrating that commitment to public access to publicly funded research resides at the top-most level of research institution administration. Together, these six land-grant universities enroll over 100,000 students, confer ~17% of the bachelor’s and 20% of the doctoral degrees in New England, and invest more than $700 million annually on research with the support of federal grants...."

"DuraSpace, a non-profit organization that combines Fedora Commons and DSpace technologies, announced a launch of their Solution Community program to extend participation in open source software development to strategic decision makers....By providing leadership, tools and coordination DuraSpace Solution Communities bring tech savvy decision-makers together around critical community issues to establish the conditions in which collaboration can flourish to provide durable access to our digital heritage...."

The Faculty Senate at the U of Virginia postponed its vote on an OA policy. "[D]ebate still continued about the scholarly copyright resolution. If the proposal is adopted, all faculty members would have to ask their publishers to agree to release unmodified versions of their articles to be placed in a public University repository. Faculty members unable or unwilling to do so could e-mail a University official to ask for a waiver. Though many faculty members support the resolution, there is enough disagreement across departments that the Senate may in fact modify the resolution to reach a stronger consensus among Senate members, Chair Ann Hamric said...."

A book-length report edited by Andrew Rens and Rebecca Kahn, published by the University of Cape Town and the Information Society Project at Yale Law School.

"The difficulty in accessing learning materials for cash strapped Ugandan students is the subject of a research investigation by NABOTU [National Book Trust of Uganda]. The research is exploring ways through which content providers such as commercial publishers can make available online some of their content under a flexible license such as creative commons. The research is also looking at what business models would guarantee income streams for the publishers. The idea is to grow a body of content that students can freely access....NABOTU is optimistic that a free business model making accessible learning materials required by students is perhaps the best way for boosting educational quality."

In the white paper summarized here (and already tagged for OATP), "The broader context of innovation was analysed by reviewing publishing reforms and e-science initiatives — such as open access, data publishing, and preprint servers — in other disciplines. An understanding of the dynamics of transformation within these successful initiatives served as a useful benchmark for the analysis of the value of new science-communication models in chemistry [which have not yet been as widely adopted as in other sciences]...."

A 70 pp. white paper on communication in the field of chemistry, supporting OA. From the abstract: "This paper is intended as a starting point for discussion on the possible future of scientific communication in chemistry, the value of new models of scientific communication enabled by web based technologies, and the necessary future steps to achieve the benefits of those new models....It observes that such innovations...have not yet found broad adoption and acceptance by the chemical community. The paper proceeds to analyze the reasons for this...."

http://www.rabotaivacansii.ru

http://www.vacansiirossii.ru

http://www.vakansiirossii.ru

Camilla Kerslake, Soprano singer and The Gary Barlow Protégé is proud to release her new album with extra christmas songs in it. This is including White Christmas Song, Abide With Me Song, Noel song and 2 more songs which are simply perfect. Check here on her official website. Camilla’s stunning voice is currently seen on TV adverts this christmas.

"Although many of the challenges to OA library publishing apply in any context, there are some particular challenges faced by libraries in the Global South (areas also referred to as the Third World), not only in gaining full access to available resources but in participating more fully as producers of information and knowledge. Overcoming these challenges is an ethical imperative, enshrined in many a library mission statement, with profound consequences for freedom of thought and expression, democracy, and sustainable development...."

Abstract: The advent of the open access (OA) movement in publishing has been instrumental in causing a shift in the accessibility of research findings published in academic journals. The adoption of OA and other online publication models means that the results of scientific research published in journals using a free access (FA) framework are now available, free of charge, to anyone with access to the Internet. FA journals typically require a payment from the authors of a manuscript, which has raised concerns about the quality of work published in them; accepting payment from an author may compromise a journal’s acceptance criteria. This study addresses whether journal policy on the treatment of animals is influenced by whether a journal follows a FA publishing model, and whether a requirement to pay for publication has an influence. A random sample of 332 biomedical journals listed in the ISI Web of Knowledge and Directory of Open Access Journals databases were assessed for whether they had an ethical policy on publishing animal studies, and what form of publication framework they used (103 of the journals followed a FA framework; 101 charged in some way for publication). Only 135 (40.7%) of the journals surveyed demanded that submissions comply with a pre-defined ethical stance. FA journals are just as likely to have an ethical policy on the treatment and presentation of animal studies as ‘traditional’, non-FA journals (significance of there being a difference: P = 0.98), and there is no relationship between policy and whether an author is required to pay for publication (significance of there being a difference: P = 0.57). Older journals are more likely to have an ethical policy (P = 0.03). There is, therefore, no obvious compromise shown by FA journals in the explicit policies on reporting studies involving animals. However, since anyone can read published FA studies online, FA journals that do not have an explicit policy about publishing animal research are urged to consider adopting one.

Two resources two keep track of just some of the latest titles made available online. The RSS feed from the Internet Archive is almost always cranking out newly digitized titles during the week, 50 or so at a time.

"In 2009, print magazines lost advertisers, readers, and now, it seems, the Main Branch of the San Francisco Public Library. This year, the branch will spend about $385,000 on periodicals, down nearly $75,000 from the year before." "This year, the Main Library boosted spending on its 106 databases and online resources from $750,000 to $1 million." "So what happens with the money saved on periodical subscriptions? This year's savings go to the library's book budget. So maybe print still wins. For now."

"A searchable map detailing 40 years of Israeli archaeological work in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, developed for the USC Digital Library, has won the 2009 Open Archaeology Prize from the American Schools of Oriental Research...."

OSSP is apparently new. Its first project (the Human Brain Project) launched in August 2009 and two others (Human World Project and Natural World Project) will launch in January 2010.

"Just as open source software allows programmers to access the code in order to create new and improved versions of software, open source science gives the scientific community open and easy access to fundamental experiments, methods and data in order to facilitate more research. The goal, ultimately, is better science....One of the main tenets of the open source science movement is access...."

"Google is now including full-text legal opinions from U.S. Federal and State District, Appellate, and Supreme courts in Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com). And I really like it. For the lay public, it is fun to search opinions because you not only get judges explaining how a particular law is applied to certain facts in the case, but you also get links to law journals and treatises citing the case and "related scholarly works" (whether it cites your case or not)...."

"A federal judge late Thursday [today] granted preliminary approval to a revised settlement between Google and two authors and publishers groups over the Internet giant's effort to create a vast digital library. U.S. District Court Judge Denny Chin, of the Southern District of New York, said he will hold a hearing Feb. 18 on the new settlement...."

"Mendeley, a Web service that lets users organize and share research papers, recently announced that it has surpassed 100,000 users, and that its database now includes some 8 million works....TechCrunch...says the company —which is still less than a year old— could surpass Thomson Reuters’ Web of Science, the largest research-paper database, by April 2010. Mendeley says it is doubling in size every 10 weeks...."

US case law (federal and state, district and appellate) is now available in Google Scholar, along with "cited by" and "related" links to other cases.

http://www.estvacansiiirabota.ru

http://www.estvakansiiirabota.ru

http://www.estrabotaivakansii.ru

"We would like to draw your attention to an online questionnaire developed by OpenAccess-Statistics. This survey intends to collect quantitative data about the desirability of various features which can be implemented in repository systems."

From the abstract: This study examined the effectiveness of seven different interventions designed to increase the proportion of general practitioners (GPs) accepting an offer of free access to an online evidence-based resource....Australian GPs (n = 14,000) were randomly selected and assigned to seven intervention groups, with each receiving a different letter. Seven different strategies were used to encourage GPs to accept an offer of two years free access to an online evidence-based resource (BMJ Clinical Evidence)....In the group with no research demands, 27% accepted the offer. Average acceptance across all other groups was 10%. There was no advantage in using additional strategies such as financial incentives, opinion leader support, offer of professional development points, or an educational aid over a standard letter of offer to increase acceptance rates....

The author, Ferdinand von Prondzynski, is the President of Dublin City University.

Searching for past web pages with the Wayback Machine is "a lot of hassle. But it shoudn't be, says Herbert Van de Sompel, a computer scientist at Los Alamos....'We've a better way.' That 'better way' is a system that gives browsers a 'time-travel' mode, allowing users to find web pages from particular dates and times without having to navigate through archives. Called Memento, the system Van de Sompel is developing alongside colleagues from Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, harnesses a function of the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP)...."

Comments on the Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge, drafted by the Free Culture Forum (Barcelona, October 29 - November 1, 2009).