Since its inception in the 1970s, the ISO standard ISSN has remained an essential identifier for print and online serials and continuing resources worldwide. The main value of this identifier relies on the quality of the metadata provided by trained library professionals around the globe. The ISSN network, that currently comprises 88 national centres and the International centre based in Paris, will celebrate its 40th anniversary in 2015. A special issue of the journal Ciência da Informação (ISSN 1518-8353) will be published by the Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology Information (IBICT), research unit of the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation in Brazil, to mark this occasion.

IBICT would like to collect contributions that will trace back the evolution of ISSN and discuss its place among the current ecosystem of serials publishing and information identifiers.

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ProQuest affiliate Bowker will now include the ISO-certified International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) in its ONIX 2.1 data feeds to retailers such as Barnes & Noble, as well as the major search engines, ensuring that authors are accurately identified in search and discovery.

The « Carrefour de l’IST » brought together information professionals on 25 and 26 November  2014. The theme was the services to researchers, innovations and new developments.

A presentation has been made on this occasion on identifiers and referentials in the French open archive HAL.

The French think tank GFII (Groupement Français de l’Industrie de l’Information) made proposals to create the optimum conditions for economic development through the reuse of public information. To this end, the association has published a list of data which should become open data. The ISSN is one of them. (In French)

When a handful of authors were caught reviewing their own papers, it exposed weaknesses in modern publishing systems. Editors are trying to plug the holes.

In September 2014, the CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) Ethics Committee, known as COMETS, has published a guide that aims to promote scientific integrity. « CNRS le journal » investigates the causes, extent and consequences of the fraudulent practices in science as well as the measures taken to eradicate them. Article in French.

OpenAIRE is about to launch a new project: OpenAIRE2020, starting in January 2015. The initiative will implement the H2020 Open Access policies and mandates for publications and will be one of the key European infrastructures supporting the EC’s Research Data Pilot.

Research Consulting, a UK consultancy, was recently retained jointly by London Higher and SPARC Europe to examine what it costs UK institutions to comply with the open access (OA) requirements laid out by various UK research funders, especially Research Councils UK (RCUK) and the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE).

So far most OA-policies and mandates have a preference for green OA, although many allow payment for article processing charges (APC) via grants or dedicated OA-publication funds.

Three well-known organizations,  have recently updated their OA-policies and mandates and now emphasize and/or facilitate Gold OA for slightly different reasons.

Mehrdad Jalalian, an Iran-based researcher in publication ethics, journalism, and research methods adresses a recent phenomenon in scholarly publications : the hijacking of journals.

This two parts article raises the important role of librarian publishers, and their relation with institutional repositories.

Part 1: Librarian Publishers May Be More Important Than You Think

Part 2: The Convergence of Data Repositories and Library Publishers

Institutional repositories have grown in importance over the last 10 years to offer a core University and Library service. This development is putting pressure on staff resources and challenging the underlying software.

This webinar outlines these issues as well as look at how the needs and use of repositories may change in the future. The slides and the recording are now available online.

Couperin, the French consortium of academic libraries for e-publications, has signed in 2014 a five years agreement with Elsevier for a national licence allowing the French academic libraries to access about 2,000 journals. The reactions, highly contrasted, have been collected in an article. (in French)

The SWIB conference aims to provide substantial information on linked open data (LOD) developments relevant to the library world and to foster the exchange of ideas and experiences among practitioners.

The latest edition was held in Bonn (Germany), 1st-3rd december 2014.

The slides and the videos related are now available.

What are the requirements for the inclusion of a publication in Europeana? Susan Muthalaly, editorial and PR officer of the European portal recalls the methods and documents used to improve the quality of its data.

The 34th Annual Charleston Conference was held in Charleston, United States, November 5-8 2014. This year’s theme was « Issues in Book and Serial Acquisition ».

On this occasion, François-Xavier Pellegrin, Head of the data section at the ISSN International Centre, gave a presentation of ROAD, the Directory of Open Access scholarly Resources.

 

The presentations and the highlights are now available online.