The findings of this report are based on data provided by Member States regarding their progress in implementing the 2012 Recommendation on Open Access to and preservation of scientific information. The situation has improved regarding e-infrastructures,  national policies and initiatives for interoperability and common standards. Further efforts are required regarding copyright legislation, training, tools to monitor open access publications and preservation of information.

This report is based on presentations delivered during a conference about open access in the humanities that took place in May 2018 in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This event was targeted to researchers in the humanities and social sciences, as well as to editors of peer-reviewed journals from these scientific areas. More than 80 participants listened to presentations on a collectively funded humanities megajournal (Open Library of Humanities /OLH), on infrastructures for open scholarly communication (OPERAS and HIRMEOS), and on data and openness in the arts and humanities. Good Slovenian practices were presented.

The objective of this study is to investigate how Open Science values and practices have influenced open access (OA) journal publishers in Latin American and the Caribbean (LA&C) countries. The key research question is: to what extent are these practices being adopted by LA&C journals? A survey was conducted with a sample of LA&C journals listed on the DOAJ database. The results reveal that if many journals are aware of or informed about most of Open Science practices, only a few have already successfully adopted those practices.

Wellcome is currently conducting a review of its open access policy. As part of this, they are running a short open consultation to solicit stakeholder views on the policy and its future. Submissions from individuals and organisations are welcome.

The consultation questions can be viewed and responses submitted via this online form. The deadline for responses to the consultation is 21 May 2018.

Richard Poynder interviewed two OA advocates, one from the global North and one from the global South, along with their responses to each other’s Q&A. Jeffrey MacKie-Mason is a University Librarian and Chief Digital Scholarship Officer at UC Berkeley. Mahmoud Khalifa is a librarian at the Library of Congress Cairo Office and DOAJ Ambassador for the Middle East and Persian Gulf.

The Indian University Grants Commission (UGC) has removed 4,305 questionable or poor-quality journals from its approved list of journals. The UGC was forced to act following complaints by researchers and the media about inclusion of predatory and questionable journals in its white list. Consequently, the Standing Committee on Notification of Journals re-evaluated every journal title recommended by universities as well as those indexed by Indian Citation Index. Eventually, the Committee found 4,305 journals to be either low quality or questionable. The criteria for selection as a UGC approved journal are explained. Among these criteria, the ISSN plays a central role.

The EU-funded project eInfraCentral Portal has recently launched the first version of a web platform dedicated to science and research. The purpose is to provide a single entry point through which research communities can search, access and compare a multitude of services provided by e-Infrastructures. This portal has been designed to make life easier for researchers, encourage partnerships across disciplines and countries and encourage European scholarly excellence.

Rick Anderson, Associate Dean for Collections and Scholarly Communication in the J. Willard Marriott Library at the University of Utah, wonders if open access (OA), and particularly Green OA, is likely to lead libraries and other customers to cancel their paid journal subscriptions. He gives his point of view on the question, summaring the issues and challenges of journals subscriptions, OA and Big Deals.

The American Theological Library Association (ATLA) is moving the Theology Cataloging Bulletin (TCB) and the ATLA Summary of Proceedings, two valued and frequently consulted resources of the ATLA membership and others, to open access. Historically, you had to be a member of ATLA to access to TCB and the Proceedings. With the shift to open access and to Open Journal System, these publications enjoy increased readership and the priorities and professional work of ATLA’s membership will be more discoverable.

A detailed report of a study performed by Science-Metrix funded by the US National Science Foundation, analyzes the situation of Open Access in the second half of 2016. This report details population-level measurements of the open access (OA) availability of publications indexed in two bibliometric databases—the Web of Science (WoS)  and Scopus. The study identified that among the countries with the highest scientific output, more than 50% of papers published between 2010 and 2014 were available in open access, with Brazil taking the lead with 75% of articles. The study also presents the citation patterns of open access articles in relation to paywalled articles.