Even while founding megajournals have lost momentum, others that are more selective or specialized are thriving. Three discipline-focused megajournals have grown rapidly in recent years.
Dominique Babini shares her thoughts on Plan S and its significant differences with the Open Access ecosystem, free of article processing charges (APC), that the Latin American region preserves.
Since 2016, UNESCO annually marks 28 September as the International Day for Universal Access to Information (IDUAI). UNESCO will continue to organize a series of ‘Open Talks’ at the global level in Lima, Peru on 27 September 2019, and at the regional level in Toluca, Mexico on 19 and 20 September 2019. The events aim to create worldwide discussion on how to foster open societies, open access to information and sustainable development. Within this context, the event, to be held at the Autonomous University of the State of Mexico (UAEMex) in Toluca, will bring together the founders of AmeliCA and recent members, and create an opportunity to take stock of what has been achieved one year after its launch, build a roadmap of activities and projects for 2020 including the strategy by AmeliCA in favor of the Sustainable Development Goals.
In July 2019, Christopher Kenneally spoke with Rob Johnson of Research Consulting during the webinar Plan S Revisions Decoded. They covered all aspects about Plan S: what has changed, what has stayed the same, and what might happen next.
the Association of Learned Professional & Society Publishers (ALPSP), Wellcome and UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) have appointed Information Power to explore potential strategies and business models learned societies can adopt under Plan S – Society Publishers Accelerating Open Access and Plan S. The final report and toolkit will be launched at the next ALPSP Conference to be held in September 2019. Alicia Wise and Lorraine Estelle discuss some of the initial findings and provide an update from the first phase of the SPA-OPS project.
A group of like-minded individuals from libraries, academic institutions, publishers, and consortia have organized to provide support and advocacy for Learned and Professional Societies called ‘Transitioning Society Publications to Open Access (TSPOA)’. Through consultations, advocacy, and information sharing, this group aims to connect society journal editors and publishers with useful resources related to transitioning society publications to OA.
In the Indian context, Open Access to science has been facilitated by government-funded repositories of student and doctoral theses, and many Indian society journals are published with platinum OA. Indian journals are increasingly available on OA platforms. However, OA in India faces numerous challenges, notably predatory OA journals and the paucity of funds. There is a need to increase awareness amongst Indian academics regarding best publication practices, and how to avoid falling prey to poor quality OA journals.
Plan S will be a focal point for Europe’s research libraries in the coming months as systems and working routines are adjusted to meet the plan’s requirements. LIBER appreciates the latest guidance, which matches LIBER’s strategic goal of making Open Access the main form of scholarly communication by 2020. At the same time, LIBER’ Open Access Working Group recognises the complexities and challenges faced by research libraries to implement publishing or update services to follow Plan S.
LA Referencia gives visibility to the scientific production of higher education and research institutions in Latin America, promotes open and free access to full text, with a special emphasis on publicly financed results. The Open Repositories conference aimed to address discussions on how repositories can support, interact and improve the experience of their recipients. Within this framework, Lautaro Matas, LA Referencia, and Washington Carvalho Segundo, IBICT (Brazilian Institute of Science and Technology Information), presented the improvement of LA Referencia metadata by linking research profiles with repositories. The presentation is now available for download.
[Article in Spanish]
Researchers applauded Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)’s new selection criteria that removed many existing journals from its index because they are ‘Not Adhering to Best Practice’. However, many of these journals have acceptable scholarly quality. The present study compares such removed journals to a trustworthy bibliometric database, SCImago Journal & Country Rank (the Scopus Database). It finds many overlaps. Some of the overlapping journals have a high score in the SCImago ranks. This paper calls for a more transparent process of journal reviews by DOAJ or even a re‐examination of the selection criteria and/or the evaluation process.
