Open Access on nostuff.org archive | Chris Keene

The Data Imperative: Libraries and Research Data : comment

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 20:20:08 +0000

I put this in to a seperate post. It continues on from my previous post, but didn’t want my notes of the day to be taken over by my ill thought views.

Personal Thoughts

Reluctant to give some thoughts as I know so little about the service. However… (!)

There seems to be two clear areas here: Data formatting and Data storing. There is some linkage (Preserving surely covers both, formats can become obsolete, Servers die), yet the two seem to be somewhat seperate.

Research in the Open: How Mandates Work in Practice

Fri, 29 May 2009 09:28:35 +0000

Today I’m at the RSP/RIN Research in the Open: How Mandates Work in Practice at the impressive RIBA 66 Portland Place.

Slides can be found here (not available when I made this post, as semi excuse as to why my notes miss so much). These are rough notes, which I’m making available in case others are interested, apologies for mistakes and don’t take it as gospel!

After an introduction by Stéphane Goldstein, kicking off with Robert Kiley from the Wellcome Trust.

Free e-books online via University of Pittsburgh Press

Tue, 26 May 2009 09:27:09 +0000

The University of Pittsburgh Press has put nearly 500 out of print books online and Open Access. You can access them via their Digital Editions website. This is excellent news, making work which could be lost openly available to all.

For years there has been a movement towards making Journal articles Open Access, i.e. publicly available. However some subjects (especially in the Humanities) publish much of their research in books, not journals. Letting the world gain from the (normally publicly funded) research contained within books is more complex, and it’s not an area I fully understand. The author normally receives royalties from book sales. However I understand this are normally very small 99% of the time, and normally tail down to tiny amounts after a few years. What if funders and Universities demanded that any book written with their money (or during their employment) must be made publicly available after x number of years (let’s say 10 years)? Academics and Publishers would not welcome the move, but would still allow a window where they can gain revenue, and if this became the norm it would be something they just have to accept. Meanwhile, once open access, the book becomes much easier to archive and preserve, and ensure the knowledge is available to all in the long term. Just a thought.