Scottish Journal of Performance now available in the repository

This week the Open Access team archived the first two issues of the Scottish Journal of Performance (SJoP). SJoP is a peer-reviewed postgraduate-led Open Access journal published by The Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.

CC-BY 4.0 Scottish Journal of Performance

We were lucky enough to get Ben Fletcher-Watson and Thomas Butler from SJoP to speak at the open journals workshop held in Parliament Hall last week. Just to recap, last week the University hosted a workshop called Managing Journals: Challenges and Opportunities. The workshop brought together journal editors and managers, with varied perspectives and editorial practices, to speak about their experience of running locally operated journals. The presentations delivered by Ben and Thomas gave a fascinating insight into a truly unique journal which comprises of more than just text, but also multimedia such as videos, images, and soon audio.

In his presentation, Ben mentioned the need to preserve the journal in as many places as possible. With this in mind, Ben requested that the library archive SJoP articles in the institutional repository. This has the dual benefit of giving the journal an additional permanent storage location as well as potentially increasing readership by offering another access avenue. When uploading content to the repository, we also enhance the metadata and add elements such as subject headings and classifications, which further increases the discoverability of content.

You can read the SJoP articles held in the repository here: http://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/5513

UKSG webinar - The University Library as Publisher

Two members of the OARPS (Open Access and Research Publications Support) team will be contributing to a free online webinar on Wednesday this week. The event, organised by UKSG, will see Jackie Proven and Janet Aucock presenting alongside Angela Laurins (University of Edinburgh) on the topic of journal hosting services.

The topic of the webinar is specifically about the implementation of support for journal hosting services such as Open Journals System (OJS), but will also touch on wider issues such as the role of the library as a publisher. The webinar will also explore topics such as: why set up a locally operated journal, how to set up a journal, and what are the issues concerning the long term longevity of a locally operated journal.

Currently the University of St Andrews hosts 10 locally operated journals using the OJS platform, see the journals here: http://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/. The University of Edinburgh also uses the same OJS platform and it too currently supports 10 journals.

The webinar is free and open to anyone who is interested in learning more about this exciting new publishing system. To sign up visit: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/4568128127294580737

The webinar starts at 1400 on Wednesday 29th October.

It will also be recorded so don't worry if you can't spare the time on the day. As long as you register, you will be sent a link to the recording after the event.

Library fund for Open Access and Generation Open

The fund has been established since August 2013. We recognised that good research would not always receive support from major funders to pay article processing charges (APCs) and that this was potentially unfair, especially to early career researchers. We also wanted to ensure that all researchers can publish in the most appropriate venue, as described in our Open Access Policy. If ‘most appropriate’ means a fully open access journal that requires payment of an APC (as opposed to a ‘hybrid’ journal where APCs are an option), then we should provide funds to support this choice. To date we have processed about 13 APCs for researchers who have no other source of funding, all to support science-related article publication in Biology, Computer Science, Medicine and Physics. The science bias is partly due to the greater number of open access model publications in these disciplines. But this is likely to change with the introduction of these models into Humanities and Social Science where progress has been slower. The level of individual APC is significantly lower (avg £1,257) compared to publication in hybrid journals and this has helped continue the fund into 2014-15.

The University has supported Open Access for some time, firstly by mandating Etheses deposit into Research@StAndrews:FullText in 2006. We encourage all our researchers to consider publishing Open Access, whether funded or not, and the Library will continue to support this choice through its fund*. Corresponding authors must be a member of staff to be eligible.

*Library fund for Open Access

Open Access in the Humanities Roadshow UK to visit St Andrews

As part of our Open Access Week activities we are delighted to announce that the Roadshow, hosted by SPARC Europe*, arrives in St Andrews 26 November. There is an exciting programme featuring speakers who are passionate advocates of Open Access including our own Dr Guy Rowlands, Reader in the School of History and chair of the Department of Modern History. Joining him are Eelco Ferwerda of OAPEN and Dr Rupert Gatti, Open Book Publishers and University of Cambridge. There will also be a “tradeshow” area where Open Access publishers will be exhibiting - Manchester University Press, Knowledge Unlatched, Ubiquity Press, Open Book Publishers, OAPEN, the Open Library of Humanities and Open Humanities Press. It presents an excellent opportunity for researchers to talk to the experts - most of whom are researchers - about Open Access monographs and journals and to find out more about the practicalities. Exhibitors will present examples of their materials and publications and give short demonstrations.

Dr Guy Rowlands

Programme
Title: Open Access publishing roadshow for the humanities
Date: Wednesday 26th November
Time: 12:00 noon - 2.00 pm
Venue: Lower College Hall
Lunch will be provided

12:00 Welcome and introduction by Lily Neal, SPARC Europe
12:05 Eelco Ferwerda, OAPEN and DOAB (Directory of Open Access Books)
12:20 Dr Rupert Gatti, Open Book Publishers and University of Cambridge
12:35 Dr Guy Rowlands, University of St Andrews
12:50 Q&A and discussion
13:20 or earlier - Publishers’ exhibition.

This event is expected to generate a lot of interest and we encourage researchers in Arts and Humanities fields to attend. For further details please contact open-access-support@st-andrews.ac.uk.
**Registration has now opened: http://bit.ly/oa-roadshow**

This Roadshow is made possible through funding from the Open Society Foundation.

*SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Europe is a membership organisation for European research libraries and research organisations. Its stated mission is to achieve Open Access and “create change and build a better scholarly communication system for the future” through advocacy and education, policy and networking.

New Open Access Button Launched

CC-BY 4.0 (Open Access Button)

The new Open Access Button has landed!

 
The Open Access Button project was started by a group of students who were frustrated by the paywalls they came up against when searching for research material. To try and tackle the issue, they created an app that documents and shares the experience of coming up against a paywall. The app they produced stores details such as who hit the wall, what they were trying to access, and for what reason. The app also records where the paywall was hit on a world map. The new Button builds on previous functionality by adding a great new feature called Your Wishlist which keeps a list of any research you failed to gain access to.

 "The Open Access Button will be used to support data driven campaigns and tell stories to support Open Access and fix the long-term issues that stop people getting the research they need."  (Open Access Button)

Here's how it works:

CC-BY OAB

Step 1.  When you come up against a paywall push the button (after downloading the app of course)

CC-BY OAB

Step 2. The Open Access Button will then search for an immediately accessible Open Access version, such as those held in our repository. If it cannot locate anything, the Button will email the author and request a copy.

CC-BY OAB

Step 3. Share your experience with the community.









The beta Open Access Button, released in November 2013 (launch covered here), recorded over 10,000 instances of people finding useful research hidden behind a paywall. The team behind the Button are hoping to increase the impact of the button by introducing a suite of new apps including dedicated Chrome and Firefox web-browser apps, as well as a specific app for Android operating systems.

Why not have a go and download the Button, either for your mobile or computer, and start documenting paywalls you come across. And don't forget to share your stories as well!

Open Access Week - Meme Competition

Knowledge Unlatched, the crowd-funded open-access e-books pilot, has started a fantastic meme competition in celebration of Open Access week. Just go to the Knowledge Unlatched webpage, select one of the 5 memes, add your caption, save, then email the link to info@knowledgeunlatched.org (above is the Open Access team's attempt).

There are 5 pictures to choose from, including:

The prize for the competition is having your meme published on the Knowledge Unlatched website as well as a donation to Book Aid International in you name.

Why not have a go yourself!

The competition closes on the 26th of October, so get your meme in quick!

Keep up-to-date with Knowledge Unlatched and other e-resources news over on the @thelibrary blog

Historians look to an open access future

Quick update from your OA support team

On the first day of Open Access Week 2014 we made a visit to the Postgraduate Early Modern and Modern History Forum. Despite the fact that the attendees had yet to begin their publishing careers, we were invited to talk about routes to open access, funder policies, and 'how open access might affect the way early career academics go about publishing'. The students were particularly interested in hearing about the benefits of open access, such as enabling reuse by readers without journals subscriptions, easier referencing through social media or translation into other languages. They were also keen to know how they can go about depositing their work in Research@StAndrews:FullText, given that students currently don't have access to the University's Research Information System, PURE, which handles the deposit process for publications.

We will take this feedback on board, and look at ways we can meet the needs of our new 'Generation Open'. As we continue visiting Schools around the University, lets hope the other disciplines are as forward-thinking as the historians!

Open Access Week is here!

CC-BY. Openaccessweek.org

Open Access Week is upon us once again!

Over the next week we will be sharing the latest news from the world of Open Access, including competitions, new technologies, and future events.

So, what's the theme this year? Well, last year the theme was "Open Access: Redefining Impact", and the year before that it was: "Set the Default to Open Access". This year attention will turn back to the roots of Open Access Week by focusing on early career researchers and students. The title for OAW 2014 is "Generation Open".

The theme will highlight the importance of students and early career researchers as advocates for change in the short-term, through institutional and governmental policy, and as the future of the Academy upon whom the ultimate success of the Open Access movement depends. (SPARC)

Here at St Andrews it is clear that the intellectual talent of our students and early career researchers is recognised and celebrated. A great example of this recognition is the North Street Review (formerly Inferno), a peer-reviewed postgraduate journal that was founded 20 years ago to promote the diversity and quality of Art History research at St Andrews, which is now available electronically through OJS (Open Journal Systems).

The rise of online journal hosting platforms, like OJS, is of great benefit to early career researchers and students as a publishing platform. So, to carry this message forward, on Thursday 23rd, the University will be hosting an event centred around staff and student led Open Access Journals. The event is designed to encourage students as well as staff to engage with locally operated journals as a unique way of selling the wealth of talent we have here in St Andrews. The event is called Managing journals: challenges and opportunities*.

The event will be held in Parliament Hall, with lunch available from 12noon. The programme starts at 1pm with case studies from existing journal managers, and will run until 4.15pm. External visitors are welcome!

* This was also covered in a previous post.

And we will be continuing our focus on publishing opportunities beyond Open Access Week, with members of the team co-presenting a free webinar on Wed 29 Oct organised by UKSG:
The University Library as publisher - Can you? Should you? Join colleagues from the Universities of St Andrews and Edinburgh to understand how open access publishing initiatives could be delivered for academic staff and students in your institution.

Taylor & Francis APC Competition

Good news, we have a competition to share!

For the past 2 years Taylor & Francis have conducted a worldwide survey of journal authors' views on Open Access (you can read more about the survey results in a previous blog post). Now the publisher has started a competition to encourage greater engagement with the published survey data.

The publisher is offering a prize of an APC (Article Processing Charge) waiver to the person who makes the most insightful use of the survey data. Effectively, this represents a prize of £1788!

To enter, email your findings to delveintodata@tandf.co.uk or alternatively tweet a link to the findings to @TandFOpen. Entry closes on the 26th of October, so not much time left!

Admittedly the prize is not applicable to everyone - it's also not transferable and there is no cash alternative :(  However, it is still very worthwhile taking a look at the survey data as it gives a real insight into prevailing opinions and also how opinions have changed over the past year.

Are your opinions mirrored by the worldwide academic community*? Why not find out!

*Note that because T&F publishes more Social Sciences and Humanities titles than Science and Technology, the results could be considered biased towards these disciplines.

Elsevier: a look inside a publishing leviathan

To our enduring frustration, much of the academic publishing process is hidden from view unless of course you are having a paper published. At first thought this makes perfect sense, especially as an information overload is an affliction best avoided. However, for us in the OARPS (Open Access and Research Publications Support) team such information is extremely valuable. As we commented in a previous post, having detailed information about the payments process can increase the effectiveness of the service we offer. This is why we were so pleased when our close liaison with authors meant we were able to see screen shots of the publishing process at Elsevier.

Firstly, the author is sent a link to this page, where they can add additional details like funder codes and Open Access payments, as well as sign the publishing agreement. Crucially, this link can also be sent to us and a member of the OARPS team will complete the subsequent steps and sign on behalf of the author.

The author is then required to enter information about funding. This is hugely important in order to ensure that the research output is compliant with funders' open access policies. It is also very encouraging to see the prominence given to grant numbers as this is a further requirement made by many funders. However, as the screenshot shows this can be a daunting form to complete.

 

It's great to see that the system automatically prompts authors to select a particular license that complies with the chosen funder's policies (in this case an RCUK research council was chosen). However, troublingly authors are able to circumvent the funder's preferred option by choosing one of the other 2 Creative Commons licenses available, neither of which are acceptable to RCUK research councils. What is perhaps more troubling is the use of the word "preferred", when it should really say "required".

 

The author will then have to agree to the rights statement and publishing agreements, after which they will be given an order summary:

Armed with this sort of information we can better support researchers who come to us with questions as we can talk them through the process and see exactly what they see.

We would like to extend a special thank you to our confidential informant for providing us with this information, keep safe out there.

Open Journals Event: 23rd Oct 2014

Later this month the University will be hosting an event centred around staff and/or student led Open Access journals. The event is called Managing journals: challenges and opportunities, and will primarily focus on the practical issues of setting up and running a journal. The event is open to staff and students, and will be of interest to anyone wishing to find out more about this exciting new publishing trend.

The Journal of Terrorism Research - hosted by the University of St Andrews using OJS

The course will comprise of a workshop with three case study presentations showing different kinds of academic journals: art/science, undergraduate/postgraduate/staff, different hosting solutions. There will also be a practical session demonstrating how to set up a journal as well as outlining some of the issues that may arise.

While OJS is being used as a model during the event, the issues presented are translatable to other journal hosting platforms. On this note, after the break, the focus will turn to the factors to consider if you chose not to use OJS as a platform. This will be followed by a Q&A.

The University of St Andrews Library currently hosts 7 journals and 1 conference proceeding using the OJS platform. The vast majority of OJS journals are Open Access so we have chosen to host the event as part of Open Access week 2014.

Please see the programme and sign up at https://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/pdms/?CourseID=4881 (tick the ‘Add course’ box and then click Book)

Event:
Managing journals: challenges and opportunities
1-4.15pm, Thur 23rd Oct 2014, Parliament Hall, University of St Andrews

And, importantly, lunch will be provided from 12noon!