Public Access to Federally Funded Research Articles and Data

The public and other stakeholders are being asked to provide input to federal agencies working to implement the presidential directive that charges them to make the results of federally-funded research publicly available. 

Publications: May 14-15, 2013  
► Get the agenda
► View the webast (will begin at 9:00 am on May 14 and 15)
► Written statements

Data: May 16-17, 2013    

► Get the agenda► View the webcast (will begin at 9:00 am on May 16 and 17)
► Written statements

U. S.Government Pursues Legal Options Against OMICS Publishing

The U.S. government is accusing OMICS publishing of trademark violation for falsely representing  government-run products and employees on the OMICS website and in their promotions. Particularly in question are OMICS claims to be indexed in the  National Institute of Health's  PubMed and depositing its articles to PubMed Central.  This is the first enforcement by the government against a publisher with a history of false claims about its business practices, particularly its claims of adhering  to open access codes of conduct. Read the full article in Science Insider.

Open Access Journal PeerJ Launches

PeerJ, an new Open Access Journal, launched June 12. Here is a Publishers Weekly article containing an interview with cofounder Peter Binfield, formerly with PLoS1. PeerJ will operate on a basic lifetime author fee of $99 for article publishing with expanded publishing options available.

Identifying Open Access Predatory Publishers

Here is a Chronicle of Higher Education interview with Jeffrey Beall, who blogs about predatory publishers that he self-identifies. In the interview, he points out some of the characteristics that stand out as bogus when certain publishers claim to be Open Access.

RUK (Reed Elsevier): The Maturing Threat of Open Access

As University Libraries continue to reduce their journal acquisitions due to mandated library resources funding reductions, commercial publishers will face losing their primary customer base, and thus, their profit margins. This article features Elsevier publishing. University libraries are exploring the growing Open Access model as an alternative to license and subscription-based journal purchasing.

Copyright - E-Reserves and Georgia State Univ legal case

Georgia State University was sued by publishers alleging copyright infringement on the use of material for E-Reserves. Duke University’s first Scholarly Communications Officer, Kevin Smith, JD, offers his review of this lawsuit. http://blogs.library.duke.edu/scholcomm/2012/05/12/the-gsu-decision-not-an-easy-road-for-anyone/ Also reported on by Inside Higher Ed

Predatory/Vanity Publishers

Just because a publisher claims to be open access and follows the author pays fees OA Model, not all publishers are on the up-and-up. Have you been solicited to publish in a particular journal? Are you skeptical? How can you be sure the journal is reputable?

Features to look for and verify:

• Are there typos or grammatical errors? That's usually a flag.
• Did you check the databases in which the journal claims to appear and find them? If you didn't find them, that's a flag. Example: the journal title claims to be indexed in PubMed but you can't find the journal title in PubMed. Not good.
• Did you find any journal issues in the archive? In the current journal list? If you can't find back issues or if there are only a couple of back issues or maybe just an image of a journal flyer, that's a flag.
• What is the pricing structure? How many journal articles will be accepted during the membership time frame? Is the pricing information clear? Is there a mechanism in place in which you agree or not agree to pay? Be careful.
• Are you prompted to check with your Institution to find out if there is an Institution-paid membership on your behalf? If not, be careful.
• What do you get for the price? Beware of publishers who offer you a certificate of membership suitable for framing and/or a designated title to add to your signature. Example: Publisher boasts that membership includes certificate suitable for framing and permission to add their group member designation behind your signature: I. M. Smart, MD, Member, Association of Predatory Publishers (MAPP)
• A publisher may claim to provide peer review and to list an impressive editorial board. Contact the listed board members to verify.

Be skeptical when you are solicited to publish anywhere. If you find any of the above flags, or others, beware and seek assistance from your librarian liaison.

Crystal Cameron-Vedros, cvedros@kumc.edu

Scholarly Publishing: OSTP comments posted

What Will ORCID Do For Me?

What is ORCID?

ORCID stands for Open Researcher & Contributor ID. ORCID aims to solve the author or contributor name ambiguity problem in scholarly communications by creating a central registry of unique identifiers for individual researchers and an open and transparent linking mechanism between ORCID and other current author ID schemes.

As of 2012, 300 organizations had joined ORCID as participants. Dykes Library is excited to participate in ORCID and to help realize the potential benefits to KU.

Unpublished Evidence

In a study that investigated the challenges of disseminating clinical research findings in peer-reviewed biomedical journals, Yale School of Medicine researchers have found that fewer than half of a sample of trials primarily or partially funded by the National Institutes of Health were published within 30 months of completing the clinical trial. The findings appear in the January issue of the British Medical Journal, which focuses on the topic of unpublished evidence. http://lists.aamc.org/t/153809/795361/15343/0/