Category Archives
February 01, 2009
SERU vs licenses: a real alternative for the acquisition of electronic resources?
In the December 2008 issue of College & Research Libaries News, there is a fascinating article on a document called SERU (Shared Electronic Resource Understanding) which was adopted by NISO (National Information Standards Organization) in early 2008 as an alternative framework for both publishers and libraries to use during the subscription process for e-resources. SERU assumes that since the early days of subscribing to e-resources, both publishers and libraries have attained a level of knowledge about these transactions and the realities of usage so that they should be able to agree on certain practices without explicitly addressing these issues in every purchasing situation. SERU references copyright law and regulations and certainly does not supercede any copyright law, but takes the approach that the two parties do not need to reinvent the wheel, so to speak, when the time rolls around to purchase a new subcription by spelling out exactly what is allowed or disallowed.
SERU is statement of shared understandings that both parties must agree to use in place of time-consumming licensing negotiations, but it is strictly voluntary. If either party does not feel SERU serves their needs, they may turn back to more standard licensing negotiations. In reading the support documents for SERU at www.niso.org/workrooms/seru, it appears that SERU may be adopted by both parties in instances that both feel are suitable, but neither party can change any aspect of SERU because some aspect of it does not fit their needs. In that case, NISO recommends that SERU be set aside in favor of the traditional negotiations. The shifting landscape of e-resources could certainly use the solid ground provided by SERU, but only if both parties can move beyond the mistrust and fear of litigation and misuse that lurks in the background during licensing negotiations. SERU recognizes that the market for purchase of e-resources has matured and offers both parties the option of skipping a lot of the usual preliminaries and saving a great deal of time and effort.
-Andrea Odom
Posted by colldev at 08:46 PM
November 30, 2008
Expanding the value of scholarly, open access e-journals
In the newest issue of Library & Inforamtion Science Research (v30#4, Dec. 2008), Matthew Elbeck and Jean Mandernach propose a solution to the challenge of identifying high-quality articles within open access publications. Their article, "Expanding the value of scholarly, open access e-journals," describes the traditional quality indicators used in scholarly publishing, explains how those indicators are inadequate for open access publications, then describes a method that could be used to identify e-article quality.
The traditional methods of assessing the quality of a published scholarly article - including journal reputation and citation analysis - do not fit the new model of open access publishing. To overcome the skepticism inherent in online publishing, new methods of identifying article quality must be adopted, argue Elbeck and Mandernach. The method they suggest involves the article's author, reviewers, and readers. The article should be peer-reviewed, just as its print counterpart; as part of the review, reviewers assign a value ranking to the article. In addition, after its publication online, readers would provide assessment and complete an article satisfaction score. Quality of the article would be determined by the relationship between the article's value and reader satisfaction. Although there are challenges to overcome by this proposed system - such as the potential for controversy regarding value and satisfaction scores - this system could improve perceptions of open access journal quality.
posted by Jerianne Thompson
Posted by colldev at 10:57 PM
September 13, 2008
Clearing the Air: Intellectual Property Revisited
On September 11th, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) issued a press release titled Publishers Praise New Legislation to Safeguard Copyright in Research Works regarding the legislation of the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act (H.R. 6845) that will aid to "protect the rights of authors and publishers of copyrighted, peer-reviewed, scientific journal articles."
The hearing was held to discuss the "implications of a government mandate that relies on a Federal agency's funding of scientific research." The previous mandate gives funding agencies the freedom as they see fit, to distribute the funding recipient's works, which "undercuts...the quality assurance processes of peer review." This legislation is to address issues of the mandate's inconsistencies with U.S. copyright law and "our nation's ability to comply with international treaty obligations." Allan Adler, AAP Vice President for Government and Legal Affairs recognizes the need to keep incentives in place for peer-reviewed information so that "we are ensured of the quality and integrity of published research."
This act recognizes the "importance of the added value that journal publishers contribute," and would "keep the Federal Government from undermining copyright protection for journal articles where private-sector publishers have added such significant value." In other words we must encourage productivity of this valuable information, not hinder it.
To learn more about this and other issues in scholarly publishing visit:
**The Association of American Publishers (AAP)
**Professional Scholarly Publishing (PSP) a division of AAP
~posted by Dawna Beasecker
Contact information for referenced press release:
Judith Platt/Acacia O'Connor
Ph: 202-220-4550
Posted by colldev at 03:32 PM
September 02, 2008
Podcasting and Intellectual Capital
As a member of the Special Libraries Association, I receive their monthly magazine, "Information Outlook." The August edition had a great article on Podcasting. If you're a member of SLA, you can log in and read the article here. Although the article is aimed at using podcasting for "knowledge capture" in organizations, the academic implications would be similar. The article discusses benefits of podcasting, tips for creating podcasts, other uses for podcasts, and the future of podcasting. In my opinion, a podcast might not fully capture experiences in scholarly communication. However, as a support tool, or a supplement to work that is available elsewhere, podcasts could add a new dimension to knowledge sharing. I think it's an avenue worth exploring. Incidentally, the "Information Outlook" magazine is a great resource for hot topics in Information Science- I wholeheartedly recommend checking it out sometime.
-Posted by Anna Galyon
Posted by colldev at 10:29 PM
September 24, 2007
Publishing Trends of Top Economic Scholars
I came across this entry in Dani Rodrik's blog that discusses an NBER White Paper by Glenn Ellison. Ellison takes a look at the publishing trends of Harvard economists and recounts his findings on their increasing use of the Internet to publish research findings versus the use of peer reviewed journals. The comments on the blog are interesting and discuss the necessity of publishing to achieve a tenured rank, the "problem" of revisions, and the value of peer review.
To access the actual white paper, please access the UT Library Database page for Business and Economics and scroll down to NBER Working Papers. The Ellison paper was published during July 9-16, 2007 and is entitled Is Peer Review In Decline?
--posted by Robbi De Peri
Posted by colldev at 11:10 PM
September 23, 2007
Response to Publishers attacks on Open Access
SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #113 September 2, 2007 by Peter Suber
Will open access undermine peer review?
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/09-02-07.htm#peerreview
In this article Peter Suber gives a response to publishers claims that Open Access Journals will undermine and eventually destroy Peer Review Toll-Access Journals.
Suber begins by saying, "As soon as governments started contemplating policies to ensure open access to publicly-funded research, publisher trade associations and lobbying coalitions objected that the policies would undermine peer review." He gives 15 responses to these fears and closes with, "I'm saying that publishers have not even come close to making good on either of their claims, that OA archiving would kill TA journals or that killing TA journals would kill peer review."
--posted by Gypsy Moody
Posted by colldev at 05:16 PM
September 05, 2007
Author discusses pros and cons of internet
This article was forwarded to me on a reference listserv I am subscribed to. Although the overall topic is information literacy, I found it interesting that the focus of the interview, Mark Herring, states that one pressing need for today's academic library is the need to "figure out a way to provide information that is scholarly and peer reviewed for students." He goes on to mention how much his library pays for proprietary databases like Lexis-Nexis.
The more I read about the move for Open Access, the more I believe it will only help and not hurt. If we could give internet ease-of-access combined with high level scholarly communication it seems it would be a win-win situation. What are your thoughts?
Once again, here is the link to the article.
-- Posted by Lisa Burley
Posted by colldev at 03:21 PM
August 18, 2007
"University Publishing in a Digital Age" Noted by Chronicle of Higher Education
A new study by Ithaka, a nonprofit group that promotes the use of information technology in higher education, University Publishing in a Digital Age, was noted by Jennifer Howard in the August 3, 2007 issue of The Chronicle of Higher Education (p. A14). Howard quotes from the study: "In American colleges and universities, access to the Internet and World Wide Web is ubiquitous. Consequently, nearly all intellectual effort results in some form of "publishing.'"
Scholarly publishing may now appear on the Web, in an institutional repository, as well as in a traditional peer-reviewed journal or monograph. While some scholars have been quick to adapt to this rapid transformation, administrators are giving little attention to the changing environment. The report suggests that the scholarly publishing industry may be out of step with the values of the academy.
See the complete report at: http://www.ithaka.org/publications/UniversityPublishingInADigitalAge.
--posted by Linda Phillips
Posted by colldev at 02:58 PM
