Providing an analysis of Open Data and Open Science policies across Europe, SPARC released a new report. Produced in collaboration with the Digital Curation Center (DCC), it follows on the heels of a previous work that listed national research data policies.

This latest companion piece takes that work several steps further, analysing the types of policies in place, their processes of creation, and some of their details. Included in the study are the 28 EU member states, as well as countries from the European Research Area, including Iceland, Norway, and Switzerland.

Much of the rhetoric around the future of scholarly communication hinges on the “open” label. In light of Elsevier’s recent acquisition of Bepress and the announcement that, owing to high fees, an established mathematics journal’s editorial team will split from its publisher to start an open access alternative, Jefferson Pooley (Associate Professor of Media & Communication at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania) argues that the scholarly communication ecosystem should aim not only to be open but non-profit too. The profit motive is fundamentally misaligned with core values of academic life. Despite the obstacles to forging a non-profit alternative, this goal is worthy and within reach.

DOAJ has had excellent connections and representation throughout Latin America for many years, thanks to previous work by Redalyc, sponsorship from SciElo and DOAJ Latin America Ambassador. DOAJ’s first sponsorship from Mexico, the Tecnológico de Monterrey, is of great importance to both DOAJ and the open access movement throughout Latin America where open access publishing has been a de facto for many years. Collaboration with publishers from Latin America aims at improving best practice, as well as openness for readers and for authors.

Dissemin is a tool encouraging researchers to publish their articles in open access. It allows researchers to measure the accessibility of their publications and put their pre-prints online in a few clicks. The metadata are automatically filled in by Dissemin. This functionality is made possible by harvesting two main sources: BASE (Bielefeld Academic Search Engine) and Crossref.

On 12 July 2017, OASPA hosted a Twitter chat with Caroline Sutton (Head of Open Scholarship Development at Taylor & Francis and member of the OASPA Board), Rebecca Kennison (Principal of K|N Consultants and the co-founder of the Open Access Network), Dr Jennifer Edmond (Research Fellow and Director of Strategic Projects for the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at Trinity College Dublin and co-director of the Trinity Center for Digital Humanities) and Ron Dekker (Director of CESSDA).

A full account of the discussion can be viewed on the Twitter hashtag #OASPAChat, and a summary is posted on Storify. This Twitter Chat extended the webinar held in June 2017 with the same panelists.

This study, conducted by Reme Melero, a CSIC (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas) scholar and member of the Open Access team, together with Mikael Laako and Miguel Navas,  implements the four core variables of the recently published Open Access Spectrum (OAS) (reader rights, reuse rights, copyright, and author posting rights) to measure the level of openness in all 1,728 Spanish scholarly journals listed in the Spanish national DULCINEA database at the end of 2015.

From 12 to 16 June 2017, IFLA’s presence at the World Summit on the Information Society Forum 2017 allowed delegates to hear the library perspective on three aspects of access – open (free for users), public (Internet access in libraries) and meaningful (ensuring that people have the necessary skills to make information useful). Panelists from a range of international organizations – ADB, CERN, ESA, UNESCO, WHO, WIPO and IFLA – spoke about their experiences in developing and implementing Open Access (OA) policies.

The main outcomes can be found on pp. 200-204 on the Forum Track Outcomes.

COAR has just published a new report entitled Asia Open Access Regional Survey.

In terms of research outputs, the Asian continent is already prolific and is growing quickly, with China poised to become the world’s leading country in terms of number of published research articles. This report provides an account of the current state of open access in 16 regions of Asia. It is expected that the survey results will contribute to the wider implementation of open access and help various regions make the case for greater investment in open access, both in terms of policies, as well as national and local infrastructure.

Knowledge Unlatched is a consortium of libraries and publishers working together to grant open access to scholarly books and journals in the humanities and social sciences. Founded by Frances Pinter in 2012, the initiative has unlatched nearly 500 titles to date and is presently launching its fourth round – KU Select 2017 – with 350 monographs, including both frontlist and backlist titles, and more than 20 journals.

KU team is currently reviewing submitted titles and plans to start the pledging in May 2017. Libraries are now invited to view the collection and pledge for titles at: app.knowledgeunlatched.org. Interested librarians and stakeholders can find answers on the KU Select 2017 central information page.