5000th repository item - update

This is a quick update on the 5000th item in the repository we highlighted back in February: A phenomenological-enactive theory of the minimal self, by Brett Welch. We sent Brett a copy of Martin Paul Eve’s book Open Access and the Humanities as a prize. Last week he received the book and was kind enough to send us a picture (we especially like the Saltire in the background!)

You can read Brett's thesis here:  http://hdl.handle.net/10023/6043 

Martin Paul Eve's book is also freely available to download and read online through our library catalogue, here: http://library.st-andrews.ac.uk/record=b2173431~S5

New open access inter-faith journal

We are delighted to announce the first volume of Convocamus, a new journal on the University of St Andrews Library journal hosting platform.

Conceived and produced by Samuel Mellish and a team of undergraduate students in St Mary's College, Convocamus is an inter-faith publication providing a platform for scholarly dialogue. Sam provided a case study for our recent event, Managing journals: challenges and opportunities.

Following the absence of opportunities to pursue research projects outside of the undergraduate structure, students of St Mary's College sought to form a platform for such study. As members of a religious college the students wanted to use this platform to bring together individuals from a number of religions. This led to the birth of Convocamus. 

The editorial staff hope the journal will encourage inter-faith dialogue, and provide a platform for academic debate. Also, we hope it encourages undergraduates to take their studies beyond their degree.

The first articles have already had significant interest, with over 500 PDF downloads of the current issue. The greatest usage was understandably at the point of publication (261 article downloads in December 2014), with usage continuing into 2015.

The journal's Editor-in-Chief, Sam Mellish, would like to thank all those who have contributed and read the journal so far.

Read the first issue of Convocamus at: http://ojs.st-andrews.ac.uk/index.php/convocamus/issue/view/98/showToc

You can also let your comments and thoughts be heard via the Convocamus Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/convocamus

New St Andrews membership with the Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute (MDPI)

The University Library is delighted to announce that we now have a membership with MDPI - Open Access Publishing that publishes in disciplines ranging from Biology and Life Sciences to Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. We hope that the choice of journals, an easy user interface for authors and system integration with central funding needs will make this an attractive Open Access publication venue choice for researchers.

Please note the eligibility criteria for the University of St Andrews central open access funds.

Central funds are available for:

• Papers acknowledging funding from Arthritis Research UK, Breast Cancer Campaign, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research and the Wellcome Trust, where the corresponding author is at the University of St Andrews
• Papers acknowledging RCUK funding (AHRC, BBSRC, EPSRC, ESRC, MRC, NERC or STFC), where the corresponding author is at the University of St Andrews
• Corresponding authors who are full St Andrews staff or research students and who have no other source of open access funding 

St Andrews authors who are not eligible under the above criteria will still receive the membership discount but will be requested to pay for Article Processing Charges from their own budgets, should the paper be accepted for publication.

In all cases authors must confirm eligibility with the University Library before agreeing to pay an APC.

For further information, please visit:

http://www.st-andrews.ac.uk/library/services/researchsupport/openaccess/oafunding/

or email open-access-support@st-andrews.ac.uk

From Valera, S. and Bode, B.E. (2014) Strategies for the synthesis of yardsticks and abaci for nanometre distance measurements by pulsed EPR, Molecules 19(12), 20227-20256 doi 10.3390/molecules191220227

Distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.

New open access e-books available

The contingent of open access e-books in our library catalogue continues to grow with two new recent additions. The books, published by Cambridge University Press, are both Creative Commons licensed and are freely available to read online or download as a pdf.

Open Access and the Humanities, by Martin Paul Eve (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). DOI: 10.1017/CBO9781316161012. CC BY-SA

http://library.st-andrews.ac.uk/record=b2173431~S5

“In the first decade and a half of the twenty-first century, the words ‘open access’ have been uttered with increasing frequency in universities around the world. Beginning as little more than a quiet murmur in niche scientific sub-disciplines but developing towards a globally mandated revolution in scholarly communication, the ascent of open access looks set to continue. Despite this rapid, worldwide rise, however, many misunderstandings about the phenomenon remain. At the most basic level, this includes the key question: what exactly is ‘open access’?” …

© Martin Paul Eve 2014, Open Access and the Humanities: Contexts, Controversies and the Future

The History Manifesto, by Jo Guldi and David Armitage (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2014). DOI: 10.1017/9781139923880. CC BY-NC-ND

http://library.st-andrews.ac.uk/record=b2173411~S5

“We live in a moment of accelerating crisis that is characterised by the shortage of long-term thinking. Even as rising sea-levels threaten low-lying communities and coastal regions, the world’s cities stockpile waste, and human actions poison the oceans, earth, and groundwater for future generations. We face rising economic inequality within nations even as inequalities between countries abate while international hierarchies revert to conditions not seen since the late eighteenth century, when China last dominated the global economy. Where, we might ask, is safety, where is freedom? What place will our children call home? There is no public office of the long term that you can call for answers about who, if anyone, is preparing to respond to these epochal changes. Instead, almost every aspect of human life is plotted and judged, packaged and paid for, on time-scales of a few months or years. There are few opportunities to shake those projects loose from their short-term moorings. It can hardly seem worth while to raise questions of the long term at all.” …

© Jo Guldi and David Armitage 2014, The History Manifesto

From darkness to the light: raising the visibility of St Andrews research on the internet

"That’s why I filed the paper into PURE – the system does a great job of making materials widely visible." Dr Philip Roscoe, Reader, School of Management

PURE and Research@StAndrews:FullText have served as the University's research information system and Open Access repository for a number of years. As the mechanisms for curating and surfacing the University's research they also provide data and feeds that Schools can configure to present Open Access publications. A good example is Jennifer Kerr's and Mary Woodcock Kroble's work on the School of Management publications pages that also list theses and feeds into individual researcher profiles. The School of Classics was one of the first to incorporate PURE web services feeds and repository links into its web pages to present its publications lists dynamically. Dedicated IT staff  like Jennifer and Mary work within Schools to extract data from central services and present it in ways that showcase publications in attractive and appropriate styles for their research disciplines. This makes more efficient use of research publications data and allows Schools to build on developments in central services to present data dynamically instead of maintaining static lists of publications. We encourage Schools to consider using these services to make their research more visible and to support Open Access. Above all, we hope these services encourage researchers to deposit into PURE to raise their profile and the visibility of their publications on the internet.  PURE and Research@StAndrews:FullText are under active development.

PURE deposits
The Research Policy Office offers advice and training on accessing and using the PURE system and can provide more information on web services for School IT staff.
The Open Access and Research Publications Support (OARPS) team can help with questions about publication deposit, Open Access and PURE web services open-access-support@st-andrews.ac.uk
Our Theses web page provides support and contact details for questions about theses deposit and locating St Andrews theses.

Open Data is an increasingly important aspect of Open Access that researchers need to consider. The St Andrews Research Data Management website provides detailed information on funder compliance, policy, data management plans and other aspects of managing research data.

Research publications - what you need to know

The University of St Andrews Library is here to help support you in your studies and research and we are developing a series of new workshops for staff and students. Our first workshops will provide advice on important aspects of research publication that may be new to you.

Research funders increasingly expect publications to be Open Access, new policies affect the way your research outputs are disseminated, and there are new expectations about aspects such as underlying research data. We aim to simplify things for you, and provide the information you need to get the best from your publications, and ensure compliance with funders.

We have two short (45min -1 hour) sessions planned, with more to follow. Sessions are primarily aimed at St Andrews research staff, and would also be suitable for research students who will be publishing journal articles, or research administrators. Each session will be repeated. See details below and on the Library's event page.

Funder and grant acknowledgement: all you need to know
17 March 2015, 14:15 - 15:00: Register for a place
25 March 2015, 10:15 - 11:00: Register for a place

This short session will explain the value of acknowledging funders and grants in your publications, and the best way of doing this. We will cover statements about underlying research data, the basics of linking papers, as well as funding and data in Pure.
There will be a presentation, practical demo, and time for questions covering:

• why proper funding acknowledgements in published journal articles are necessary
• good practice and standard formats for acknowledgements
• capturing funder and grant details – in submission systems and in Pure
• benefits of funder acknowledgement – compliance, reporting, visibility of research
• linking publications and data
• access to underlying data
• not forgetting … correct author affiliation

HEFCE Open Access policy for REF 2020: make sure you’re ready
31 March 2015, 12:30 - 13:30: Register for a place
30 April 2015, 12:30 - 13:30: Register for a place

This informal session will give you the basics of what you need to know – and what you need to do – about Open Access for the next REF.  You will have the chance to ask questions and clear up any concerns you may have.

HEFCE has a new policy for Open Access in the next Research Excellence Framework (REF). In order to be eligible for the next REF the new policy requires peer-reviewed articles and conference proceedings to be available through an institutional repository when they are accepted for publication. The policy will be fully implemented in April 2016. The University is introducing this policy to researchers now, by asking that you upload your accepted manuscripts in Pure.The session will cover questions such as:

1. Depositing papers in Pure
2. Versions and timing – what does ‘accepted for publication’ mean?
3. Exceptions and embargoes – what happens if a publisher doesn’t allow open access?
4. Terminology – what does green OA mean?
5. Cost – will I have to pay for open access?
6. Copyright – am I allowed to do this?

Library Event page: http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/university-of-st-andrews-library-4894319079

Collabra: a new journal that pays reviewers

Copyright Collabra

University of California Press will soon launch a new fully open access mega-journal* called Collabra. The new journal is set to launch in March 2015 alongside a new open access book program called Luminos:

“As part of the world’s greatest public research university we knew that we needed to make a significant investment to meet the changing publishing and dissemination needs of our audiences,” said Alison Mudditt, Director of UC Press. “These programs have been shaped by hundreds of conversations with faculty, librarians, and other key stakeholders. With Luminos, we will combine the global reach and visibility of OA with our unwavering commitment to publishing superior scholarship to create a speedboat, not a life raft, that will carry monographs forward and allow them to remain a vital resource.” University of California Press

Collabra is a fully open access journal that requires authors to pay APC charges in order to get papers published. This charge covers the cost of production, as well as operating costs, staff wages, etc. In most fully open access journals there is significant profit to be made through APCs and these margins are increased as reviewers are traditionally unpaid. It is sometimes said that unpaid reviewing is simply part and parcel of academic culture, however the innovative payment scheme of Collabra proves that this doesn’t have to be the case. At Collabra, the APC costs $875, $250 of which goes towards paying the reviewers. The reviewers can then decide what they would like to do with the money. They can choose to keep the money, put the money into an APC waiver fund for researchers unable to pay the fee, or pay it forward to their institution’s open access APC fund.

“The journal model is not just about paying reviewers but also about directing some of the value generated back into the research community.” Collabra

We approached Dan Morgan, the Digital Science Publisher at Collabra for a quick explanation of the Collabra process:

"By assigning a percentage of the APC for the research community, Collabra spreads revenue and tangibly shows the value of this work, creating a true partnership. Collabra is enabling the research community to decide what to do with this value that it generates. Reviewers and editors can elect to pay themselves, or pay it forward to the Collabra waiver fund, or their institution's OA fund - in the latter instances creating more OA opportunities for more people. We'd love it if they did that, but importantly it is their choice, and not ours." Dan Morgan

Dan recently spoke at FORCE 2015, a conference centred on highlighting new trends in research communication and e-scholarship. His Creative Commons licensed presentation is available for free on figshare here: http://figshare.com/articles/Introducing_Collabra_OA_Journal_from_University_of_California_Press/1305201

Traditional publishing practice sees value directed solely back to the publisher (Dan Morgan)

So, the journal will put more emphasis on the value added by academics, who mostly work for free for publishers when reviewing and editing. By offering an APC waiver the journal can also serve as an open access publishing platform to those “priced-out” by the often high APC charges demanded by publishers.

Collabra will focus on three main disciplines at launch: life and biomedical sciences, ecology and environmental science, and social and behavioural sciences. To find out more about Collabra why not visit the website (http://www.collabraoa.org/), or share your thoughts and opinions using their twitter handle @CollabraOA (https://twitter.com/collabraoa).

*A mega-journal is a journal that has a number of key characteristics. It will be fully Open Access (with no subscription options), it will not judge articles based on perceived importance, instead judgement will be based on “scientific, methodological and ethical soundness and credibility” http://www.collabraoa.org/faq.php#article-processing-charges. Mega journals also often have a fairly broad coverage. A good example of a scholarly mega-journal is PLoS one http://www.plosone.org/

**We extend a special thanks to Dan Morgan and Lorraine Weston of Collabra for providing information and permission to reuse image and video content