2003 and Earlier News

A highlight of University of California-related news in 2003 was the faculty forums.

December 2003

• The UC libraries conclude their negotiations with Reed-Elsevier. Starting January 1, 2004, the UC community will have access to a selected list of about 1,200 of the company’s scholarly journals, including titles produced by Harcourt Health Sciences, Academic Press, and Cell Press. The five-year contract accommodates the University’s deteriorating budget situation without sacrificing access to the titles selected by each campus. The libraries report that they have "arrested for now the price inflation that has been common in this market," and describe the necessity for continuous action to address the economic sustainability of scholarly communications. See the letter to UC faculty: [PDF]
• On December 31, the entire editorial board of the Journal of Algorithms resigns to protest the high price charged by the publisher (Reed-Elsevier). The board plans to launch a new journal in January 2004 called Transactions on Algorithms, published by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM). See the letter from the editors explaining their resignation: [PDF]
• The MIT libraries decide not to accept the three-year renewal packages offered to them from Wiley and Reed-Elsevier.
• Delegates to the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society meeting endorse a declaration of principles that include a commitment to "promote universal access with equal opportunities for all to scientific knowledge and the creation and dissemination of scientific and technical information, including open access initiatives for scientific publishing." See the declaration: [DOC]
• The Science and Technology Committee of the British House of Commons announces that it will conduct an inquiry into public access to journal publishing in the scientific community, with the goal of ensuring that researchers, teachers, and students have access to the content they need. The committee is seeking input on the effects of current pricing policies, and possible government action to support access.

November 2003

• The Chronicle of Higher Education publishes a "Point of View" article by former UC President Richard Atkinson. "A New World of Scholarly Communication," appeared in The Chronicle Review 50, no. 11 (November 7, 2003): B16. Available online to subscribers at The Chronicle Review.
• eScholarship Editions announces 1,250 UC Press books online. See the press release: [PDF]

October 2003

• UC libraries host regional faculty forums to discuss alternative forms of scholarly communication.
• The Academic Senate of UC Santa Cruz passes a resolution calling for "its tenured members to give serious and careful consideration to cutting their ties with Elsevier: no longer submitting papers to Elsevier journals, refusing to referee the submissions of others, and relinquishing editorial posts should the UC/Elsevier negotiations prove unsuccessful." See the resolution on ties with Elsevier journals: [PDF]
• In a widely distributed letter, two UC San Francisco faculty call for "unified actions" from faculty regarding Cell Press journals, including: "i) decline to review manuscripts for Cell Press journals; ii) resign from Cell Press editorial boards; iii) cease to submit papers to Cell Press journals; and iv) talk widely about Elsevier and Cell Press pricing tactics and business strategies." The call is reported in the Chronicle of Higher Education.
• A briefing letter from UC Faculty Senate Chair Lawrence Pitts and the University Librarians is sent to UC faculty regarding unsustainable license costs for some journals. See the letter: [PDF]
• The Public Library of Scienice (PLoS), a San Francisco-based non-profit organization of scientists and physicians, publishes the first issue of PLoS Biology, a monthly peer-reviewed journal available free online. The journal features several articles authored by UC San Francisco faculty.
• The Berlin Declaration on open access to knowledge in the sciences and humanities is created and signed by major public funders committed to open access from Germany, France, Greece, Hungary, Italy, and Norway.
• The Wellcome Trust publishes an economic analysis of scientific research publishing, one of the most comprehensive analyses of its kind.

September 2003

• The Company of Biologists announces its open access initiative. From January 2004, its journals (Development, Journal of Cell Science, and The Journal of Experimental Biology) will offer authors the option of open access, allowing all internet users completely free access to articles.
• UC libraries web site debuts at http://libraries.universityofcalifornia.edu.

August 2003

• The U.S. Department of Justice approves Cinven and Candover's acquisition of BertelsmannSpringer and its merger with Kluwer Academic Publishers (KAP). The new entity, re-named Springer, becomes the second largest publisher of scientific journals in the world, trailing only Elsevier Science. The European Commission approved the sale on July 29.
• Washington Post publishes "A Fight for Free Access to Medical Research."

June 2003

• Rep. Martin Sabo (D-Minn.) proposes federal legislation named the Public Access to Science Act, which would prohibit copyright protection for any works stemming from substantially federally funded research. See a report in The Scientist.
• UC's digital preservation program is launched with the hiring of its first director.

April 2003

• The National Academies launch a web site and newsletter devoted to intellectual property issues.
• The Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing is drafted at a meeting held at the headquarters of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Chevy Chase, Maryland. The principles are designed to "stimulate discussion within the biomedical research community on how to proceed, as rapidly as possible, to the widely held goal of providing open access to the primary scientific literature."

January 2003

• UC's eScholarship program publishes 500 UC Press titles online. See the press release: [PDF]