Category: Open Access

Oct 29 2021

Open Education Resources and the 5 R’s

Posted on by Amanda Bartel

One of the best kept secrets of education are Open Educational Resources. The University of Iowa’s adopted definition is: “Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching, learning, and research resources that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use. Generally, this permission is granted by use of an open license (for example, Creative Commons licenses)” These can be videos, images, and audio recordings that can be used to enhance your teaching. You may already be using them – like TED Talks, or images from Flickr! 

OER make teaching accessible, but you aren’t limited to using resources in the way they are found. Because of their public domain or creative copyright licenses, users are able to use them for the 5 R’s: Retain, Reuse, Revise, Remix, and Redistribute. From the UI LibGuide on OER these are defined as:

  1. Retain – the right to make, own, and control copies of the content (e.g., download, duplicate, store, and manage)
  2. Reuse – the right to use the content in a wide range of ways (e.g., in a class, in a study group, on a website, in a video)
  3. Revise – the right to adapt, adjust, modify, or alter the content itself (e.g., translate the content into another language)
  4. Remix – the right to combine the original or revised content with other material to create something new (e.g., incorporate the content into a mashup)
  5. Redistribute – the right to share copies of the original content, your revisions, or your remixes with others (e.g., give a copy of the content to a friend)

By contributing your remixed work to OER resources, you can help further the cycle of Open Access. What are some ways you have used OER? Let us know in the comments below!

Thanks for following along for our celebration of Open Access Week. We hope you have learned something that will help you to further your learning, research, and life. If you have any questions about Open Access, don’t hesitate to  reach out. You can find us through our contact page.

Oct 28 2021

Open Science

Posted on by Amanda Bartel

In 2019, UNESCO created their Recommendation on Open Science, a set of guidelines to help encourage collaboration across national boarders, language barriers, and institutional divides. Open Science advocates for Open Access, but widens the scope to include Open Data, Research, Evaluation, Policies, and Tools. 

A taxonomy of Open Science from the Foster Open Science initiative (click to see in detail!)

Open Science leads to more collaborative and democratic discoveries. Institutions that lack funding may not be able to access the expensive databases that can be the only point of access for important papers and other resources. Removing hurdles is good for everyone! By following Open Science guidelines, publishing in Open Access journals, and making their processes widely available, scientists can ensure that their results are accurate by making their tests easily reproducible. Expanded access means more diverse worldviews are contributing to the science. Learn more about the development of Open Science with the resources below!

UNESCO Recommendation on Open Science. Available: https://en.unesco.org/science-sustainable-future/open-science/recommendation 

UNESCO. (2019). Preliminary study of the technical, financial and legal aspects of the desirability of a UNESCO recommendation on Open Science. 40th Session of UNESCO General Conference, Paris. Available: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000370291  

UNESCO Director-General. (2020). Preliminary report on the first draft of the Recommendation on Open Science. Available: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000374409  

 

Oct 26 2021

Library to Help You Publish for FREE in Open Access

Posted on by Kari Kozak

UI corresponding authors can now publish their journal articles Open Access and free of cost to them with 8 different publishers! The University Libraries have entered into “transformative agreements” covering the cost if you want your article to be open access. 

  • American Chemical Society(ACS): UI corresponding authors can publish open access in any ACS journals without a fee. Under this agreement, UI authors can publish 34 articles per year OA, it is part of a first come pool and not unlimited. 
  • Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): Any UI corresponding author can publish open access in ACM journals with no fee. The publisher’s website contains additional information 
  • Cambridge University Press (CUP): There will be no charge for UI corresponding authors who publish open access in CUP’s gold (40 titles) and hybrid journals (330 titles). See CUP’s announcement for more details. 
  • Cogitatio Press: UI corresponding authors can publish in Cogitatio’s four journals without a cost. This announcement provides more detail. 
  • Microbiology Society: Articles published in this society’s journals will be OA by default for UI corresponding authors. 
  • PLOS Medicine and PLOS Biology: UI corresponding authors can publish in these two PLOS journals with no fee. PLOS’ announcement provides more detail. 
  • Royal Society: No-fee OA publishing in the society’s nine journals for UI corresponding authors. Royal Society’s read and publish page contains more information. 
  • The Electrochemical Society (ECS): UI authors can publish open access in ECS journals free of charge.

This will not only broaden access to UI articles, but will meet the requirement of some granting agencies to publish OA without embargo. These articles can be immediately read by anyone, anywhere, without the paywalls that traditionally accompany academic journals. 

Learn More at:  https://guides.lib.uiowa.edu/c.php?g=1119367&p=8163705

These programs are only for new papers/articles. It is not retroactive to previously published   

If you have any questions, please contact Kari Kozak (kari-kozak@uiowa.edu) 

Oct 26 2021

ORCiD and Open Access

Posted on by Amanda Bartel

What is ORCID and why does it matter to Open Access? 

ORCID (Open Researcher and Contributor ID) is a personal identifier that helps to make sure that work gets attributed to the correct person. To learn more about ORCID and to get started with your own, visit ORCID @ The University of Iowa.

What does this have to do with Open Access?

ORCID is founded on principles of open access and works to build networks between researchers through expanding access. They back this up in practice, since their own software is open access. 

Have you ever started searching for an article by searching an author’s name only to find in the results that there are multiple authors by the same name, or can’t tell if the author of two papers is the same person because their associated institution has changed? By creating unique searchable ID’s for researchers, ORCID helps overcome both of these problems. If properly maintained, ORCID records can also be full lists of work that a researcher has done. If you can’t access a paper because it is behind a paywall, check the author’s ORCID! You may find they wrote a similar paper that is published in an open access journal.

Want even more information? Watch this short video for more explanation. If you are ready to get started, use the UI ORCID Planter tool to claim your ID today! 

Oct 25 2021

Celebrate Open Access Week with us!

Posted on by Amanda Bartel

Happy Open Access Week! 

What is Open Access? 

According to UNESCO, Open Access is “free access to information and unrestricted use of electronic resources for everyone.” The hope of Open Access is that increased access to research will lead to more collaborative projects and that the removal barriers will create a more equitable research environment.

We’ll be putting up mini blogs every day, so check in here to learn about ORCID, Open Educational Resources, and more. Also follow along on our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter so you don’t miss anything!

 

Works Cited:

What is Open Access? | UNESCO