International Identifier for serials
and other continuing resources, in the electronic and print world

COAR Guidelines for Assessing Publisher Repository Services

The guidelines contain criteria that will help repositories make decisions about whether or not to adopt the different services being offered by publishers to the repository community. They were developed in consultation with the COAR Executive Board and the Aligning Repository Networks Strategic Committee.

Language of Protest

The editors and all editorial board members of Lingua, one of the top journals in linguistics, resigned to protest Elsevier’s policies on pricing and its refusal to convert the journal to an open-access publication that would be free online. As soon as January, when the departing editors’ noncompete contracts expire, they plan to start a new open-access journal to be called Glossa.

EC Workshop on Alternative Open Access Publishing Models

The EU and many other research funders now mandate open access to scientific publications resulting from public funding. One of the central implementation issues is the search for sustainable models supporting a transition to open access. The workshop aims to collect information and reflect on each of the models presented.

Launching of REDIB Ibero-American Network for Innovation and Scientific Knowledge

The platform REDIB, Red Iberoamericana de Innovación y Conocimiento Científico (Ibero-American Network for Innovation and Scientific Knowledge), has launched late September 2015, and is available at https://www.redib.org  (check https://www.redib.org/en for the English version).
REDIB is a platform for the aggregation of scientific and academic content in electronic format, produced in the Ibero-American space.

What is an Academic Journal?

Opinions on the future of journals vary widely. There are those who say it will live forever and others who see the journal as an ugly reminder of the sins of big publishers – exploitative vehicles for dragging a profit from those who can’t afford to pay.

According to the author, it is worth taking a step back and asking ourselves why the journal exists in the first place.

Open Access Policy Guidelines for Research Performing Organizations

The present guidelines aim to assist in the development of efficient Open Access policies among Research Performing Organisations. They have been prepared by the National Documentation Centre and SPARC Europe as part of the work of the PASTEUR4OA project.They provide the context, the process and a model policy that will enable the institutions to devise and implement their own Open Access policy

‘Predatory’ open access: a longitudinal study of article volumes and market characteristics

A negative consequence of the rapid growth of scholarly open access publishing funded by article processing charges is the emergence of publishers and journals with highly questionable marketing and peer review practices. These so-called predatory publishers are causing unfounded negative publicity for open access publishing in general.

A very complete study on these entities, their origins and their methods.

Open Science in Poland 2014. A Diagnosis

Transition to Open Access in Poland has been happening for some time. Over 20 scientific institutions have repositories, some of them implemented OA policies, near 950 journals are available freely on the internet. But the transition results solely from bottom-up initiatives. The report “Open Science in Poland 2014. A Diagnosis” analyses the strengths and limitations of such a model.