OPERAS resources

"A new economic model for analysis of scholarly publishing-journal publishing in particular-is proposed that draws on club theory. The standard approach builds on market failure in the private production (by research scholars) of a public good (new scholarly knowledge). In that model publishing is communication, as the dissemination of information. But a club model views publishing differently: namely as group formation, where members form groups in order to confer externalities on each other, subject to congestion. A journal is a self-constituted group, endeavouring to create new knowledge. In this sense 'a journal is a club'. The knowledge club model of a journal seeks to balance the positive externalities due to a shared resource (readers, citations, referees) against negative externalities due to crowding (decreased prospect of publishing in that journal). A new economic model of a journal as a 'knowledge club' is elaborated. We suggest some consequences for the management of journals and financial models that might be developed to support them. "

"The European Commission held a workshop on 12 October 2015 in Brussels to collect information about the alternatives to Green and Gold open access, including how the alternatives work, how they have evolved, whether they work well, and what challenges they don't manage to tackle. This report synthesises the presentations and discussions from the workshop."

"When researchers, funders, universities and libraries started thinking about open access and improving scholarly communication in the late 1990s, the focus was on access. Indeed, the most immediate challenge was to make it possible to access scientific literature resulting from public funding."

"The second progress report is already available for the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot providing information on the first four months of the project with data as of Sep 30th. The results show that the initiative is gradually taking up, with more than double funding requests having been granted in this 4-month period than in the first two months of the Pilot. The rhythm of growth is however slower than initially expected, due to both the season which the initiative has been launched in and the difficulty to reach out to eligible researchers on a rather specific funding policy. The activity is however steadily increasing and factors like the enhancement of the system for collecting and processing funding requests and the consistent dissemination work being done by NOADs and institutions will surely provide the basis for a steeper growth in forthcoming months."

"The second progress report is already available for the EC FP7 Post-Grant Open Access Pilot providing information on the first four months of the project with data as of Sep 30th. The results show that the initiative is gradually taking up, with more than double funding requests having been granted in this 4-month period than in the first two months of the Pilot. The rhythm of growth is however slower than initially expected, due to both the season which the initiative has been launched in and the difficulty to reach out to eligible researchers on a rather specific funding policy. The activity is however steadily increasing and factors like the enhancement of the system for collecting and processing funding requests and the consistent dissemination work being done by NOADs and institutions will surely provide the basis for a steeper growth in forthcoming months."

"Les étudiants doivent-ils moins lire pour réussir ? La politique documentaire suivie par les établissements d'enseignement supérieur français pourrait le laisser croire. alors que le coût de la documentation académique augmente, les dépenses consacrées à l'achat d'ouvrages ne cessent de baisser, pénalisant en premier lieu les étudiants, mais aussi la recherche en sciences humaines et sociales ou en mathématiques. Côté documentation électronique, l'offre de e-books ne décolle pas, et si les dépenses pour l'abonnement à des revues en ligne continuent d'augmenter, certains établissements ont défrayé la chronique en 2015 en coupant drastiquement dans leurs dépenses documentaires de niveau recherche. Retour sur les principales conclusions de l'enquête annuelle de l'adbu sur les dépenses documentaires des bibliothèques universitaires (période 2002 - 2015)."

"In this article two scholars engage in a conversation about open access and open science in research communication with a specific focus on the Humanities.  The two scholars have very different points of departure. Whereas Jean-Claude Guedón has been a professor of Literature in North-America for many years and part of the open access movements since its beginning, Thomas Wiben Jensen is in the early part of his carreer and fairly new to the concept of open access.  The conversation begins with a focus on the Danish national strategy for open access and this strategy's consquenses for the journal NyS where Thomas Wiben is part of the editorial board. However, the conversation brings the reader on an unexpected journey through the history of science communication and through alternative ways of understanding knowledge production as frozen moments or crystals in the Great Conversation of science. It is the hope of the editor and the contributors that the conversation can lead to a debate about innovative ways of communicating and distributing scientific results. "

"DARIAH Summer School 11th June 2015 Villa Vigoni Jean-Christophe Peyssard "

"Higher education is stuffed with overpaid administrators squeezing every ounce of efficiency out of lecturers and focusing on the 'profitable' areas of science, technology, engineering and maths. Are the humanities at risk of being wiped out?"

"Peer review is often thought of as ancient and unchanging, but it is neither - and it shouldn't be treated as a sacred cow, argues Aileen Fyfe"

"The Independent Review of the Role of Metrics in Research Assessment and Management was set up in April 2014 to investigate the current and potential future roles that quantitative indicators can play in the assessment and management of research. Its report, 'The Metric Tide', was published in July 2015 and is available below. "

"Why aren't articles on arXiv -or any other open access repository- formally credited as publications? What is it exactly that separates open access repositories from publishers? The simple answer is that publications in journals come with an amorphous quality indicator associated with the journal's perceived prestige. Articles posted on a repository on the other hand, are considered to be "provided at the reader's own risk", as they are not accompanied by any measurable guarantee of their scientific merit. We think the time has come to change all that."

"64% of the journals added to DOAJ after March 2014 do not have article processing charges, while 36% have article processing charges. As of today, the total is 1,123 journals of which 720 do not have article processing charges (based on an ISSN count of journals with no charges supplied by DOAJ) and 403 have charges (from the DOAJ website / advanced search / journals / expand article processing charges). However, this does support the statement that two-thirds of fully open access journals do not have article processing charges."

"With Open Access and the Humanities, Martin Paul Eve offers a slender, but surprisingly thorough, volume engaging many of the major preoccupations of the open access movement in scholarly communication. In fact, the book's strongest virtue may be the clarity and economy with which Professor Eve gathers and presents the benefits, risks, and feasible means of adapting Humanities disciplines to open access licensing, distribution, and funding models. Much of this gathering and presenting can feel fairly familiar to anyone already immersed in the slightly more mature conversation associated with STEM publishing (many of the "contexts" and "controversies" to which the book's subtitle alludes). There really is much to review, however, and as a primer for the open-access curious humanist, Eve's review should come across as congenial, convenient, and in many cases even demystifying."

"COASP 2015 Preliminary Program Trippenhuis at The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Amsterdam "

Open access for monographs and book chapters is a relatively new area of publishing, and there are many ways of approaching it. This document provides some guidance for publishers to consider when developing policies and processes for open access books.The guide was written by the Wellcome Trust, which extended its open access policy to include monographs and book chapters in October 2013. Section 4 of this guide sets out Trust policy, but otherwise the recommendations made here are intended as helpful suggestions for best practice rather than requirements.We recognise that implementation around publishing monographs and book chapters open access is in flux, and we invite publishers to email Cecy Marden at c.marden@wellcome.ac.uk with any suggestions for further guidance that would be useful to include in this document.

"In April 2016, Heidelberg University's newly founded open access publisher heiUP launched the first volume of the new book series Heidelberg Studies in Transculturality. This article reports on the challenges, accomplishments, and setbacks that informed the entire editorial production process, not only of the first volume but also of the series and the publishing enterprise overall. The authors offer insights on crucial issues that any new open access publishing endeavour at an institution might face, namely acquiring manuscripts, designing and building workflows, and collaborating with partners to build an outlet for hosting the finished product. This article also illustrates how the goal of providing a new digital reading experience through an innovative HTML format, in addition to print-on-demand and PDF versions of each manuscript, affected the progress of the entire project. Finally, we report on what it took to deliver results."

"Key points Sci-Hub has made nearly all articles freely available using a black open access model, leaving green and gold models in its dust. Why, after 20 years of effort, have green and gold open access not achieved more? Do we need 'tae think again'? If human nature is to postpone change for as long as possible, are green and gold open access fundamentally flawed? Open and closed publishing models depend on bundle pricing paid by one stakeholder, the others getting a free ride. Is unbundling a fairer model? If publishers changed course and unbundled their product, would this open a legal, fairer route to 100% open access and see off the pirates?"

"Η ελεύθερη πρόσβαση σε επιστημονικές δημοσιεύσεις και δεδομένα συμβάλλει καθοριστικά στην επιστημονική επικοινωνία και αποτελεί βασικό προσανατολισμό των ευρωπαϊκών πολιτικών για την έρευνα. Με στόχο την ενίσχυση της προσπάθειας αυτής, το ευρωπαϊκό έργο OPERAS -D (Design) στο οποίο το ΕΚΤ συμμετέχει ως βασικός εταίρος- επιδιώκει την ανάπτυξη, σε επιχειρησιακό και τεχνικό επίπεδο, μιας ευρωπαϊκής υποδομής, δίνοντας ιδιαίτερη έμφαση στις Κοινωνικές και Ανθρωπιστικές Επιστήμες (ΑΚΕ)."