July 2009
Issue 2.09
Welcome to the Summer issue of Transitions.
The purpose of this irregular electronic newsletter is to bring to readers’ attention some of the many new projects and developments affecting the current system of scholarly communication, with emphasis on new products and programs, the open access movement and other alternative publishing models. Scholarly communication refers to the full range of formal and informal means by which scholars and researchers communicate, from email discussion lists to peer-reviewed publication. In general authors are seeking to document and share new discoveries with their colleagues, while readers–researchers, students, librarians and others–want access to all the literature relevant to their work.
While the system of scholarly communication exists for the benefit of the world’s research and educational community and the public at large, it faces a multitude of challenges and is undergoing rapid change brought on by technology. To help interested members of the UI community keep up on these challenges and changes we plan to put out 4 issues per year of this newsletter. Please visit our web site, Transforming Scholarly Communication, to find out more about this topic.
This newsletter aims to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu.
Table of Contents:
University of Kansas Adopts Open Access Policy
10 University-Press Directors Back Free Access to Scholarly Articles
Taxpayer Alliance Applauds Bill to Broaden Access to Federal Research Results
Researchers Urged to Think Harder About Compiling and Sharing Data
Elsevier News: Published Fake Journals and Pays for Good Book Reviews?
Open Access and Global Participation in Science
Diminishing Returns in Humanities Research
Case Studies of Three No-fee OA Humanities Journals
Impact of Economic Downturn on Professional and Scholarly Societies
“Don’t ask, don’t tell” Rights Retention for Scholarly Articles
AAUP Report: Among Calls for Collaboration, a Plea to Reinvent University Presses