May 2010
Issue 2.10
Welcome to the spring issue of Transitions.
The purpose of this irregular electronic newsletter is to bring to readers’ attention some of the many new projects and developments informing 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 is designed to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu.
Read these articles in our May newsletter:
Federal Research Public Access Act: Updates and Commentaries
Open Access to Scientific Publications: the good, the bad, and the ugly
Opening the Doors to Research: Open Access is changing the way we learn about research
NYTimes OpEd on copyright: The End of History (Books)
Wikipedia Lets You Order Printed Books
Lessig: “For the Love of Culture: Google, Copyright, and Our Future”
Google Starts Grant Program for Scholars of Digitized Books
Peer review: What is it good for?
Publisher seeks patent related online peer review and publishing process
Commercial Publisher Financial Results
Open Science: some new developments
Harvard Business School approves open access policy
Assessing the Future Landscape of Scholarly Communication: report on faculty values and needs