Scholarly Communication News at Berkeley

Article-level metrics - Nov 9 talk

mphillip — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 22:29:27 +0000

Article-level Metrics at PLoS (an alternate way to evaluate impact): A talk by Dr. Peter Binfield

Monday, November 9
12 noon - 1:30 pm
127 Dwinelle Hall*

The Impact Factor of a journal (a measure of the number of citations to an entire journal) is commonly used by scientists and administrators as one indicator of the quality of individual articles within that journal. With the advent of the internet it is now possible to measure the worth of an individual article via so-called 'article-level metrics' (metrics which include citations, usage, bookmarks, blog coverage, and post publication commentary for a single article), and in this respect PLoS leads the world providing the data to allow this analysis.

Dr. Peter Binfield is Managing Editor of PLoS ONE (an open access title; the third largest journal in the world; and the recent winner of a prestigious award for 'publishing innovation').

For more information, see the PLoS website on article-level metrics or watch this short video.

Cookies and coffee will be served.

* 127 Dwinelle Hall: Enter Dwinelle by the main entrance near Sather Gate. Once inside the lobby, turn left and head down that short hallway, then turn right. (Or, just follow the signs.)

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Open Access Week @ Berkeley

mphillip — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 23:34:39 +0000

Open Access Week is October 19 through October 23: Open Access (OA) is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society. Open Access is the principle that all research should be freely accessible online, immediately after publication. OA is gaining ever more momentum around the world as research funders and policy makers throw their weight behind it.

Here are some of the OA Week events being held at Berkeley:

Mike Eisen, "The Future of Open Access Publishing."

An OA week talk by Professor of Molecular and Cell Biology and co-founder of the Public Library of Science (PLoS)

Tuesday, October 20, 4:00 pm - 5:30 pm

Location: Marian Koshland Bioscience and Natural Resources Library
Seminar Room (2101 VLSB).

Arrive early and get a PLoS t-shirt!!

Live Webinar from the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association
(OASPA)

Featuring representatives from five different publishers discussing the promise and perils of OA publishing. Participants include: Pierre de Villiers (African Online Scientific Information Systems), Matthew Cockerill (BioMed Central), David Hoole (Nature Publishing Group), Mark Patterson (Public Library of Science, PLoS), Saskia Franken (Utrecht University Library)

Tuesday, October 20, 9:00 am - 10:30 am

Location: Marian Koshland Bioscience and Natural Resources Library
Seminar Room (2101 VLSB)

"Take Control of your Publications with eScholarship," presentations
by Catherine Mitchell, Director, CDL Publishing Group

Monday, October 19, 12:30 pm -1:50 pm in 140 Boalt Hall and 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm in the Archaeological Research Facility, 2251 College Building

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

BRII in the Berkeleyan

mphillip — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 17:49:16 +0000

October 2: The Berkeleyan, the campus faculty and staff newspaper, profiles the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) and the open access compact in which five universities (Berkeley, Harvard, MIT, Dartmouth and Cornell) have have pledged to underwrite "reasonable publication charges" for articles authored by their faculty in open-access journals.

Open access literature provides barrier-free access to information.
Researchers from anywhere in the world can read scholarly output that
has been made available in an open-access journal. A wider audience, in
turn, has the potential to increase the impact of the research
presented in an open-access article.

Traditional, for-profit journals owned by large multinational corporations like Elsevier and Springer, charge skyrocketing subscription rates which University Librarian Tom Leonard cites as "creating new walls around discoveries." The BRII open access fund, he adds, "can really
help take down these walls..."

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

BRII in the news

mphillip — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 22:05:54 +0000

September 24, 2009: SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) profiles UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII). The libraries at UC Berkeley and the University of Calgary are among pioneer institutions to have established pools of money to cover the cost of open-access journal fees. As one Berkeley author and recipient of BRII funds stated in the profile, "I absolutely wanted the results to be freely available to the press, state agencies and others who don't necessarily have access to the libraries and journals."

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Open Access Compact

mphillip — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 16:24:13 +0000

September 15, 2009: Five universities including UC Berkeley have announced the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity. Open access literature provides barrier-free access to information. Researchers from anywhere in the world can read scholarly output that has been made available in an open-access journal. A wider audience, in turn, has the potential to increase the impact of the research presented in an open-access article. Signatories of the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity commit to the establishment of funds or other mechanisms for underwriting publication charges. When authors submit their articles to fee-based open-access journals, theses funds can be used to underwrite the publication charge.

UC Berkeley was an early adopter of the funding equity approach, having established an OA fund in January 2008. The Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) is available to any Berkeley professor, post doc or graduate student who wants to make their journal articles free to all readers immediately upon publication. According to Berkeley's University Librarian Tom Leonard, "Publishers and researchers know that it has never been easier to share the best work they produce with the world. But they also know their traditional business model is creating new walls around discoveries. Universities can really help take down these walls and the open-access compact is a highly significant tool for the job."

For more information:

Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity
“Breakthrough on Open Access,” Inside Higher Education (9/15/09)
Open Access (UC Berkeley Scholarly Communications)
Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII)

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Stuart Shieber: March 30

mphillip — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 22:23:26 +0000

On February 12, 2008, Harvard Arts and Sciences Faculty voted unanimously to adopt a policy that makes them the first university in the US to mandate open access to its faculty members’ research publications. The driving force behind the adoption of this policy was professor of computer science, Stuart Shieber. Professor Shieber currently heads Harvard’s Office of Scholarly Communication and will share his experience on how this ground-breaking policy was passed and what steps Harvard has taken to implement it.

Please join your colleagues for this public talk on:

Date: Monday, March 30
Time: 3:30 – 5:00
Location: Toll Room, Alumni House

Read more about the Harvard Open Access policy at:

Chronicle of Higher Education (2/12/08) (UC access only)
The New York Times (2/12/08)
Open Access News

This event is co-sponsored by the Academic Senate Library Committee, The Library and the School of Information (iSchool).

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

BRII anniversary

mphillip — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 22:07:50 +0000

January 21, 2009: The Berkeley Research Impact Initiative (BRII) turns one year old today. BRII supports faculty members, post-docs, and graduate students who want to make their journal articles free to all readers immediately upon publication. So far we are very pleased with the results. We have received 40 requests for funding, indicating that there is interest and a need for funding of open access journal articles. The requests span life and physical and the social sciences. This is an 18 month pilot project. For more information on the pilot along with instructions on how to apply for funding for your open access journal article go to the BRII website.

Original post blogged on b2evolution.

Springer open access pilot

mphillip — Wed, 21 Jan 2009 19:13:15 +0000

The California Digital Library (CDL) and Springer have signed a ground-breaking agreement in which UC-authored articles accepted in most of the 1700 Springer journals will be published using Springer Open Choice which brings with it full and immediate to all readers. This means that UC authors will will pay no additional publication fees in order for their articles to be immediately and fully open to all. Under this agreement, articles will be published under a license in which authors retain the right to distribute and re-use their articles freely.

The UC-Springer agreement is the first large-scale open access experiment of its type undertaken with a major commercial publisher in North America. In 2008, some 1500 journal articles by UC-affiliated authors were published in Springer journals. Please note that there are several Springer titles ineligible for this program. See the complete list of ineligible titles (PDF)

For more information, see the joint press release (PDF), talk to your library liaison or contact the UCB Library Scholarly Communication Officer.

Read more about the pilot in The Daily Californian (1/28/09).

Original post blogged on b2evolution.