UC OSC Blog
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UC Libraries Release “The Promise of Value-based Journal Prices and Negotiation”
The UC libraries announce a report describing their work on “value-based” prices for scholarly journals. Authored by a task force of the ten-campus library system’s Collection Development Committee, The Promise of Value-based Journal Prices and Negotiation: A UC Report and View Forward is a direct outcome of the UC libraries’ collective strategic priority to advance economically balanced and sustainable scholarly communication systems. The report details UC’s rationale for value-based journal prices and modeling of prices for scholarly materials that are reasonable, transparent, and based upon the value of the material to the academic mission of the University of California.
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25 Provosts Support FRPAA in Open Letter
The provosts of 25 research universities jointly release an open letter that strongly backs the Federal Research Public Access Act and encourages higher education to prepare for a new way of disseminating research findings. UC Provost and Executive Vice President Rory Hume is among the signatories. (An article in Inside Higher Education covers the development.)
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Berkeley’s CSHE Releases “Scholarly Communication: Academic Values and Sustainable Models”
Former UC provost C. Judson King and five co-authors at Berkeley’s Center for Studies in Higher Education release their report titled Scholarly Communication: Academic Values and Sustainable Models. The study explores “academic value systems as they influence publishing behavior and attitudes of University of California, Berkeley faculty,” and includes case studies based on direct interviews with relevant stakeholders – faculty, advancement reviewers, librarians, and editors – in five fields: chemical engineering, anthropology, law and economics, English-language literature, and biostatistics.
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RCUK Issues Open Access Policy
The Research Councils UK (RCUK) issued its open-access policy, which, while letting the eight separate Research Councils go their own way, reaffirms the overall “commitment to the guiding principles that publicly funded research must be made available and accessible for public examination as rapidly as practical.” On the day of the announcement three fo the councils – the Medical Research Council, Biotechnology & Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), and Economic & Social Research Council (ESRC) – had already decided to mandate open access to the research they fund.
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Academic Council Accepts December 2005 White Papers and Recommends Policy
On April 17th The UC Academic Council – the executive committee of the full Academic Assembly – accepted the white papers of their Special Committee on Scholarly Communication (see December 2005 item), and committed to forwarding the papers to the Academic Assembly along with a resolution recommending that the UC President appoint a working group to review and refine the UC Faculty Scholarly Work Copyright Rights Policy and ultimately to adopt and implement the policy “as soon as feasible.”
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EScholarship Hits 3 Million Download Mark
The eScholarship Repository hit the milestone of 3 million full-text downloads. It took eighteen months to reach the first million, about nine months to reach the second million, and 166 days to reach the 3 million download mark.
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John Ober’s “Facilitating Open Access: Developing Support for Author Control of Copyright”
John Ober’s article, “Facilitating open access: Developing support for author control of copyright” appeared in College and Research Library News. Vol. 67, No. 4. April 2006.
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“Responding to the Challenges Facing Scholarly Communication”
On December 14, the University of California’s Academic Council approves five white papers and one policy proposal for Systemwide Academic Senate Review. The papers are the product of the Council’s Special Committee on Scholarly Communication (SCSC) and, under the collective title Responding to the Challenges Facing Scholarly Communication, include: An Overview Evaluation of Publications in Academic Personnel Processes (12/05) The Case of Journal Publishing (12/05) The Case of Scholarly Book Publishing (12/05) Scholarly Societies and Scholarly Communication (12/05) The Case of Scholars’ Management of Their Copyright (12/05)
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Wellcome Trust Implements Open Access Mandate
The Wellcome Trust, one of the largest research funders in the UK, starts implementing its new open-access mandate for Wellcome-funded research.
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UC Berkeley Faculty Scholarly Publishing Statement of Principles
In the wake of a heavily attended faculty conference on scholarly publishing on March 31, UC Berkeley’s faculty senate adopt a Scholarly Publishing Statement of Principles. The statement has clauses covering faculty control of their intellectual property, advancement and promotion, incentives to establish and use alternative publishing forms, and support for the library in its efforts to curtail unsustainable pricing structures for scholarly materials. Statement of Principles Executive Summary
