by Caroline Winter | 29 September 2022 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
As discussed in the observation “Open Access Monographs,” published in March 2021, increasing attention has been paid in recent years to strategies for successfully publishing open access (OA) monographs and other long-form publications such as book chapters. Martin Eve and Anthony Cond described 2021 as “the year of the ‘starting pistol’” for OA books, with the release of Plan S guidelines for OA monographs, UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) new OA policy that for the first time applies to monographs, and the countdown to the UK’s next Research Excellence Framework (REF) (2021). This observation summarizes select developments related to OA monograph publishing over the past year.
by Caroline Winter | 15 July 2022 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
In January 2022, the Canadian Research Knowledge Network (CRKN) announced that the first phase of its efforts to decolonize the metadata in the Canadiana collections was complete. This three-phase project was initially set out as part of CRKN’s 2019–2024 Strategic Plan and falls under its first strategic goal, to “transform scholarly communication.” Specifically, CRKN aims to “lead by example by increasing the accessibility and decolonized discoverability of the dynamic Canadiana collections, ensuring that this unique content is available for research and personal use, now and for future generations” (CRKN 2019, 3).
by Caroline Winter | 17 June 2022 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
In December 2021, The Public Knowledge Project (PKP) announced its newest development partner: Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). In renewing this collaborative relationship between the two organizations that dates to 2007, SciELO joins the PKP’s other development partners.
by Caroline Winter | 3 June 2022 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
In recent years, there have been numerous calls to change research evaluation policies to rely less on journal-level citation metrics such as the Journal Impact Factor (JIF), including two key international initiatives. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA), developed at the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Cell Biology in 2012, calls for the use of article-level metrics, greater transparency in research evaluation policies and procedures, and consideration of all types of research outputs, not just journal articles.
by Caroline Winter | 13 May 2022 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
The State of Open Data 2021 report was released in November 2021. It is the sixth report in the series published by Springer Nature, Digital Science, and Figshare and presents the findings of a six-year longitudinal survey that gathered data about “researcher motivations, challenges, perceptions and behaviors toward open data” (Digital Science, 2021, 5).
by Caroline Winter | 29 April 2022 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
In August 2021, UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) published an organizational open access policy that applies to publications supported by funding from any of its seven research councils, Research England, and Innovate UK. This new policy is the result of a consultation process that began in 2018, with a draft policy for consultation released in February 2020 (see “UKRI Open Access Policy Review and Consultation”).
