The objectives, the current achievements and the future projects of the ISSN International Centre in the field of linked data will be presented at the IFLA satellite meeting “Data in libraries: the big picture” (University of Chicago, August 10^th, 2016).

14-17 August 2016: The ISSN International Centre will exhibit at IFLA conference in Columbus -USA (booth n°E104).

On 15 August: the Open Session “The Role of Stakeholders in the New Serials World” organized by IFLA’s Serials and Other Continuing Resources Section (SOCRS) will include two presentations by the ISSN International Centre.

On 16 August: The ISSN International Centre will participate in the Conference of Directors of National Libraries (Columbus, Ohio, August 16^th, 2016). Gaëlle Béquet, director of the ISSN International Centre, will give a presentation about its new strategy at the CDNL meeting.

The ISSN International Centre will conduct a workshop on RDA for Serials at IFLA pre-conference

The ISSN International Centre will attend the IFLA satellite meeting “RDA in the wider world” to be held in Dublin (Ohio) on August 11^th, 2016. It will notably conduct a workshop dedicated to the use of RDA for serials.

Authors of scholarly papers often have little problem with piracy of their material if said piracy might increase the number of people reading their work. As a matter of fact, publishers assume financial risk for scholarly and academic authors. This article from Scholarly Kitchen asks therefore the question: “What if publishers paid research authors to publish, on a widespread basis, and in amounts that would be meaningful?” Positive and negative aspects of such an idea are explored at length.

Science has become more collaborative, more computational and more data intensive in recent years. However, a study suggests that 80% of the original data obtained through publicly-funded research is lost within two decades of publication. Moreover, researchers often duplicate work that has already been done. Unfortunately, traditional journals don’t give enough space to thoroughly describe datasets or the methods or software used to generate them. To address this concern, Elsevier has launched a series of peer reviewed journals under the Research Elements Program that makes it possible to publish data, software, materials and methods and other elements of the research cycle in a brief article format.

Published scientific papers commonly appear credible, evidence-based, and truthful to the non-scientific community. But the credibility and support behind these journals may not always be as reliable as one might expect. Indeed, the predatory journal has become a vehicle for quickly publishing experiments with minimal to no review. At a time when we should be aiming higher in terms of our expectations of sciences, these new “predatory” models lower the bar. As consequence, one starts to doubt on the accuracy of science. Predatory journals allow for the entry of lesser quality sciences on an already damaged knowledge market.

The University of Florida (UF) and Elsevier have entered into a partnership to build links between the institutional repository and ScienceDirect. Judy Russell, the dean of libraries at UF expresses conviction that public access policies are advancing and that there is an evolution into the open access world. This sort of partnership are made to address goals seen as vital for the university, such as compliance and public presence. It will be interesting to observe whether libraries continue to develop repositories and scholarly communications programs as an alternative to the publisher ecosystem or in partnership with it.

Nearly two-third of UK researchers support the abolition of journal subscription fees and a move to open access, according to a major study. A survey of 6,679 academics commissioned by Jisc and Research Libraries UK found that 64 per cent of respondents supported making all academic research freely available, but also found significant differences of opinion by discipline. This survey, conducted last autumn, follows a similar study conducted in 2012, and shows how scholarly practice is evolving. According to Paul Feldman, Jisc’s chief executive, it confirmed that research practice is evolving and academics are embracing this change.

Open educational resources (OER) are freely accessible texts and media that faculty can assemble, repurpose and package under open access agreements for teaching and research – and they are a rapidly growing option.  Even if Faculty may seem to be resistant to this evolution, the Open Educational Consortium is working to promote awareness, collaboration, innovation and development of OER. The US Department of Education now recognizes 14 states and 40 districts committing to the #GoOpen initiative, to help develop new degree programs using OER.

The final text of a law “for a digital Republic” in France has been adopted on June the 29th 2016. It will be submitted to a vote by the National Assembly in July and by the Senate in September.

Article 17 is dedicated to open access issues. It states: “When a scientific article, result of a research activity funded for at least half by the State, local authorities or public institutions, by national agencies or by European Union grant, is published in a journal which comes out at least once a year, his author has the right to provide, even if he has granted an exclusive right to a publisher, a free availability in an open format (…)”.

All scientific articles in Europe must be freely accessible as of 2020. EU member states want to achieve optimal reuse of research data. They are also looking into a European visa for foreign start-up founders. And, according to the new Innovation Principle, new European legislation must take account of its impact on innovation. These are the main outcomes of the meeting of the Competitiveness Council in Brussels on 27 May.

In 25 years, open access has become a significant part of scientific communication. Open access started, together with the web, at the grassroots, as a bottom-up, community-driven model of open journals and repositories. Today the key driving forces are commercial, institutional and political interests. This development serves the needs of the scientific community insofar as more and more content becomes available through open journals and repositories. The fall of open access as a community-driven model is running the risk of becoming dysfunctional for the scientists and may create new barriers and digital divides.

From the 6th-9th September 2016 Montevideo, Uruguay will host the first Latin American and the Caribbean Open Science Forum (CILAC 2016), formulated within the framework of the 2030 Agenda of the  Sustainable Development Goals.

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Associations, OASPA, announced the opening of the registrations for the 8^th Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing (COASP), which will be held at the Westin Arlington Gateaway in Virginia, on the 21^st and 22^nd September, 2016.

Details can be found in their Registration and Accommodations page.