The Alliance for Taxpayer Access has issued a call to action to thank Representative Wm. Lacy Clay for holding a Congressional hearing on public access to federally funded research.

Here's an excerpt from the call:

On Thursday, July 29, the Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee of the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform held the first-ever Congressional hearing on the issue of public access to federally funded research.  The Subcommittee, chaired by The Honorable Representative Wm. Lacy Clay (D-MO), invited ten witnesses, representing a broad cross-section of the stakeholder communities affected by this issue, to testify on the implications of opening access to the results of publicly funded research.

The open, public hearing was a crucial and timely examination of the issue of public access and its advancement. For full details, including witness testimony, visit http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/issues/access/access_resources/10-0814.shtml.

All supporters of public access to publicly funded research are urged to please write to Chairman Clay to express thanks for taking this important step in Congress. Talking points and contact information are included for your use below. Your action is requested NO LATER THAN SEPTEMBER 17th.

As ever, please send copies of letters to SPARC/Alliance for Taxpayer Access via email to jennifer [at] arl [dot] org.

And thanks, once again, for your continued support for public access! If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us:

Heather Joseph
Spokesperson
(202) 296-2296 ext. 157
heather [at] arl [dot] org

Jennifer McLennan
Director of Programs and Operations, SPARC
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
 

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Talking points:

• On behalf of the [your organization], which represents [number and type of membership], I write to thank you for your leadership in convening the first open hearing on public access to federally funded research. 
• We believe that ensuring timely, barrier-free access to the results of the science and scholarship that our tax dollars underwrite will make possible an unprecedented variety of potential connections and discoveries, and improve the lives and welfare of people in the U.S. and around the world. We fully support policies that can turn this belief into a reality.
• Your hearing was an invaluable and timely examination of the potential benefits of public access to the results of our nation’s $60 billion annual investment in scientific research.
• By ensuring the hearing was inclusive and open, you created a very valuable forum for the diverse range of perspectives on the issue to be represented and explored.
• The direction and nature of your questions also helped to surface key topics of discussion and provide much-needed clarity.
• [detail why public access to research is important to your organization]
• We look forward to working with you to continue to advance successful public access policies in Congress.

[end talking points]

Contact information:

The Honorable Representative Wm. Lacy Clay
Chairman, Information Policy, Census and National Archives Subcommittee
Committee on Oversight and Government Reform
U.S. House of Representatives
2157 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20515
Via email: anthony.clark [at] mail [dot] house [dot] gov

Consumers International has released Access to Knowledge: A Guide for Everyone.

Here's an excerpt:

Access to knowledge (A2K) is the umbrella term for a movement that aims to create more equitable public access to the products of human culture and learning.

Fields of advocacy that it subsumes include most centrally copyright and patent law reform, open access, open data and open standards, but also access to public information, broader communications rights such as freedom of expression, and issues around ownership of and participation in public media.

Science Commons has released Opening the Door: How Faculty Authors Can Implement an Open Access Policy at Their Institutions.

Here's an excerpt:

This White Paper is intended as a companion to the "Open Doors and Open Minds" SPARC/Science Commons White Paper of April 2008. The purpose of this companion paper is to provide the legal and statutory bases for implementation of an open access policy, as well as to explain best practices for implementation of that policy. It is intended to be used by faculty and administrators interested in implementing an open access policy at their own educational institutions.

See also: Open Doors and Open Minds: What Faculty Authors Can Do to Ensure Open Access to Their Work through Their Institution.

Which topic in the Open Access Journals Bibliography has the most references? Interestingly enough, it's "Open Access Journal Research Studies."

Here's the bibliography's section list ranked by number of references.

1. Open Access Journal Research Studies
2. Open Access Journal Economic Issues
3. Open Access Journal Case Studies
4. Open Access Journal General Works
5. Open Access Journal Publishers and Archives
6. Open Access Journal Library Issues

Courtney Crummett et al. have published "Publishing Practices of NIH-Funded Faculty at MIT" in Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship.

Here's an excerpt:

Faculty and researchers who receive substantial funding from NIH were interviewed about their publication practices. Qualitative data was collected from interviews of eleven faculty members and one researcher representing six academic departments who received NIH funding. Interview responses were analyzed to identify a representative publication workflow and common themes related to the publication process. The goals of this study were to inform librarians about faculty publication practices; to learn how faculty are affected by and responding to NIH publication policy changes; and to inform planning and discussion about new services to support NIH compliance in addition to general faculty publishing.

Major themes from the interviews included consistency in publishing workflows, but variety in authorship patterns and in data management practices. Significant points of pain for authors included difficulty finding quality reviewers, frustrating submission processes, and discomfort about the implications of publication agreements. Some authors found the NIH submission requirement to be burdensome, but most assumed their publishers were taking care of this process for them. Implications for library services are considered.

The African Journal of Information and Communication has published a special issue on scholarly communication and opening access to knowledge.

Here's a selection of articles:

• Access to Africa's Knowledge: Publishing Development Research and Measuring Value
• Research Productivity-Visibility-Accessibility and Scholarly Communication in Southern African Universities
• Copyright and Education in Africa: Lessons on African Copyright and Access to Knowledge
• 'Dazzling Technologies': Addressing the Digital Divide in the Southern African Universities
• Open Access and Open Knowledge Production Processes: Lessons from CODESRIA

Version one of the Open Access Journals Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship. Open access journals publish articles (typically peer-reviewed articles) that are free of charge and, depending on the journal, may be able to be reused under an open license (e.g., a Creative Commons license). This bibliography presents selected English-language scholarly works that are useful in understanding open access journals. It does not cover works about e-prints or works that include open access journals in a treatment of diverse types of research materials. Most sources have been published from 1999 to the present; however, a few key sources published prior to 1999 are also included. The bibliography primarily includes books and published journal articles. A limited number of magazine articles and technical reports that are deemed to be of exceptional interest are also included. The bibliography includes links to freely available versions of included works.

The following recent Digital Scholarship publications may also be of interest:

1. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography, version 78
2. Digital Scholarship 2009 (paperback and open access PDF file)
3. Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: 2008 Annual Edition (paperback, Kindle version, and open access PDF file)
4. Digital Curation and Preservation Bibliography, version 1

Ted Striphas has self-archived "Acknowledged Goods: Cultural Studies and the Politics of Academic Journal Publishing" in IU ScholarWorks.

Here's an excerpt:

This essay explores the changing context of academic journal publishing and cultural studies' envelopment within it. It does so by exploring five major trends affecting scholarly communication today: alienation, proliferation, consolidation, pricing, and digitization. More specifically, it investigates how recent changes in the political economy of academic journal publishing have impinged on cultural studies' capacity to transmit the knowledge it produces, thereby dampening the field's political potential. It also reflects on how cultural studies' alienation from the conditions of its production has resulted in the field's growing involvement with interests that are at odds with its political proclivities.

Presentations from the OAPEN seminar held on June 10, 2010 in Amsterdam are now available.

Here's an excerpt from the About OAPEN—Open Access Publishing in European Networks page:

OAPEN consists of a number of European university presses and universities, and is open to new partners. The publishing partners are all scholarly presses predominantly active in Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS) and book publishing. Jointly the members have digital publishing programmes, conduct experiments with OA, make use of digital repositories, publish in different European languages, have a worldwide distribution network (including the USA), and cooperate closely with university libraries.

AccesoAbierto has made MELIBEA, a directory and validator of open access policies, available.

Here's an excerpt from the About page:

MELIBEA is a directory and validator of institutional open-access (OA) policies regarding scientific and academic work. As a directory, it describes the existing policies. As a validator, it subjects them to qualitative and quantitative analysis based on fulfilment of a set of indicators that reflect the bases of an institutional policy.

Based on the values assigned to a set of indicators, weighted according to their importance, the validator indicates a score and a percentage of fulfilment for each policy analyzed. The sum of weighted values of each indicator is converted to a percentage scale to give what we have called the "validated open-access percentage," calculated as explained in the Methodology section.