May 2008
Issue 2.08
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 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 4-6 issues per year of this newsletter.
This newsletter aims to reflect the interests of its readers so please forward comments, suggestions and entries to include to karen-fischer@uiowa.edu. Also, read the health sciences counterpart to Transitions: Hardin Scholarly Communication News.
Table of Contents:
Harvard FAS and Law School Pass Open Access Mandates
Rockefeller University Press Gives Away Copyright on Journal Articles
New Open Access Humanities Press Makes Its Debut
Prices and Ratings of Economic Textbooks
Comparison of SCImago Journal Rank Indicator with Journal Impact Factor
Progress Towards Public Access to Science – Harold Varmus on NIH Policy
Journals Find Fakery in Many Images Submitted to Support Research
Converting High Energy Physics Publishing from Subscription to Open Access
Access to Legal Scholarship
Online Company Tries an Unexpected Publishing Model: Free Textbooks
Positive Review of Library and Info Science Repository
The Importance of Open Access for Taxonomy Research
