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ACRL/EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee

OA Email Topics 2017 Campaign Overview

Sent September 26, 2017

Celebrate Open Access Week with the EBSS Scholarly Communications Committee

Dear EBSS Librarians—

In celebration of International Open Access Week, October 23-29, the EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee will share a weekly message throughout October to help our community answer questions about what benefits open access offers.

Our weekly messages will be constructed with information about selected OA topics and suggestions for engaging faculty members and graduate students in conversation. Our weekly messages will support this year's Open Access Week theme, "Open in order to...," and cover the following topics:

  • Authors' Rights
  • OA and Creative Commons Multimedia
  • Open Archiving and Mandates
  • Evaluation of Open Access Journals / Texts

It is our hope that these messages will inspire you to learn more about Open Access, and to reach out to faculty and graduate students to discuss Open Access topics during the month of October and ongoing.

We welcome your feedback on this project. The archive of last year’s OA Email Push from EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee is available here:http://acrl.libguides.com/ebss/scc/2016_email_campaign_OA. And you can learn more about International Open Access Week here:http://www.openaccessweek.org/profiles/blogs/2017-open-access-week-theme.

Thank you.
The EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee

Mandy L. Havert (Chair, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Gwyneth Crowley (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Janelle M. Hedstrom (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Li Ma (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Rebecca Yoonhee Martin (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Brian A. Quinn (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Jacqueline Rae Sipes (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)

 

Note: Entries below indicate by (*) the lead authors for the messages.

OA Week 2017 Topic 1 - Understand Your Author Rights


This entry discusses three aspects of Open Access and Author’s Rights. The first consideration is assessing your current and future needs. The second aspect is how to read and to identify your rights in contracts or publishing agreements as they are offered to you and to how to request terms that support your needs. The third question refers to the specific graduate student audience and how to engage their immediate needs when publishing their dissertation or thesis.

 

  1. Identify what rights authors can negotiate or retain via contract terms needed for their own use of publications / presentations / programs.
     

    • Q: What are rights anyway? Does Open Access mean I’m giving away my content?

      A: Rights are the ability to use content owned by an entity other than yourself. You may be giving away your rights to use the content when you agree to standard terms in a publication. Open Access does not mean you are giving away the rights to your content or intellectual property. See: The “HowOpenIsIt?” Guide from SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and PLOS (Public Library of Science) for information on how open journals are evaluated for author needs such as copyright retention and ability to post publications on the web. https://www.plos.org/how-open-is-it
       

    • Q: I have no idea which publishers support open access or what their policies  are for authors rights. Is there a resource that can help me?

      A: The SHERPA / RoMEO community site can help you search journals by title for this information. See the About page to get started: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/about.php  You can also contribute information to the community as well as use it for your own reference.
       

  2. How to read contracts and review one’s author rights.

 

  • Q: What happens to my rights to use my content when I sign a publishing agreement? I need to publish to advance in my field or organization.

    A: When you sign a publishing agreement you are entering into a legal contract with the publisher or distributor of your work. The terms in the contract define who owns the content at the end of the day. Consider “licensing your work” to a publisher or distributor. You may also seek to retain rights for yourself, such as the ability to deposit a copy of your work into your institution's repository, rather than signing all rights over to the party with whom you enter the contract. See: Author Rights: Using the SPARC Author Addendum  https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/brochure-html/
     

  • Q: I am not a lawyer. I don’t know how to write a document that negotiates my rights with a publisher. How can I get some help?

    A: SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, makes it easy to begin the conversation and negotiation with the publisher so that you may retain the right to use your work. See SPARC Author’s Addendum on: https://sparcopen.org/our-work/author-rights/

 

RoMEO is a searchable database of publisher's policies regarding the self- archiving of journal articles on the web and in Open Access repositories.

http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/index.php

 

Scholar's Copyright Addendum Engine will help you generate a PDF form that you can attach to a journal publisher's copyright agreement to ensure that you retain certain rights. http://scholars.sciencecommons.org/

 

  1. How to advise graduate students on their rights as authors of dissertations and theses
     

    • Q: What should I know as a graduate student who is about to publish my master’s thesis or dissertation? Do I need to know anything specific about my author’s rights?

      A: Many academic institutions require publication of your dissertation with ProQuest Theses and Dissertations Database. If this is part of what your institution does to archive and to make your dissertation available, see the document ProQuest publishes on their process: “Copyright and Your Dissertation or Thesis: Ownership, Fair Use, and Your Rights and Responsibilities:” http://media2.proquest.com/documents/copyright_dissthesis_ownership.pdf
       

    • Q: My institution uses an internal repository for dissertations or theses. The ProQuest document isn’t what I need. What should I do?

      A: Check with your dissertation editor or graduate school office for direction and information about how to retain your rights as an author regardless of the destination for your dissertation. Most repositories will have guidelines for what rights you hold and what rights you give up, if any. Ask for information until you are satisfied.
       

As librarians, it’s useful to see what others are doing to support their work and the work of their students and faculty. Take a look at the following examples of LibGuides and resources. You may find ideas to help round out the information you have available on author’s rights at your own institution:
 

 

* Mandy L. Havert (Chair, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
* Gwyneth Crowley (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Janelle M. Hedstrom (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Li Ma (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Rebecca Yoonhee Martin (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Brian A. Quinn (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Jacqueline Rae Sipes (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)

OA Week 2017 Topic 2 - OA Multimedia and Music

Posted 10/9/2017 to EBSS-L email list

Subject: Open Access Week 2017: Media - Public Domain and Creative Commons Licenses

Dear EBSS Librarians—

In celebration of International Open Access Week, October 23-29, the EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee will share a weekly message throughout October to help our community answer questions about what benefits open access offers.

Our weekly messages will be constructed with information about selected OA topics and suggestions for engaging faculty members and graduate students in conversation. Our weekly messages will support this year's Open Access Week theme, "Open in order to...," This week, you are invited to be "Open in order to use media in the public domain and with Creative Commons licenses."

Increasingly, students and faculty are initiating multimedia research projects that involve creating, remixing or incorporating images, audio and video. This week’s entry focuses on highlighting both public domain and Creative Commons resources that feature audio, images and multimedia that can be used in such projects.

Many of the resources we’re highlighting are also repositories where researchers can upload and share original work under Creative Commons or other open access rights.

Audio Resources

  • Digital History: This resource from the University of Texas, the University of Houston and the University of Hawaii provides access to historical music that their research has indicated is in the public domain.
  • dig.ccMixter: This website helps users to create and share mixes and samples that are Creative Commons-licensed.
  • Wikipedia Sound/list: Wikipedia provides access to a wide range of music that is either in the public domain or Creative Commons-licensed. While the site indicates that the music is "free," it is important to note that this is not synonymous with "in the Public Domain," so you will need to review the license information for the music to ensure you attribute it properly.

Image Resources

  • The Noun Project: This site offers access to millions of Creative Commons-licensed and public domain icons. Visit their customer support for use guidelines.
  • Pixabay: Large variety of public domain stock photos. Most images can be used with no restriction.
  • Flickr & Flickr's The Commons: Offers access to images with no known copyright restrictions from over 70 institutions ranging from NASA to the National Library of Sweden. In almost all cases, the images have already entered the Public Domain for one reason or another. Users can limit their image searches to a specific institution by navigating to an institution's photostream and then selecting that option from the dropdown options that appear as the user types a search into the search box.

Video Resources

  • Vimeo Creative Commons A wide range of Creative Commons-licensed and public domain video content.
  • Moving Image Archive: This section of the Internet Archive offers access to a range of videos including feature-length films, news broadcasts, and more. Some content is available for download.
  • Critical Commons: A public media archive that supports the reuse of media in scholarly and creative contexts. Many clips include critical commentary produced by registered users.

Multiple Multimedia Resource

  • CreativeCommons.org: This site makes it easy to search for Creative Commons-licensed materials across many other websites, including ones exclusively focused on music, images and video.

Engagement Ideas/Outreach strategies

  • Develop a LibGuide or infographic that highlights some or all of these resources. The resources listed above are just a small selection of what exists!
  • Crawl your school’s course catalog and available syllabi to identify courses that have a multimedia research project. Connect with that faculty member or instructor and offer to present or develop a quick guide about OA, public domain and Creative Commons resources that can support students’ work.
  • Use public domain, Creative Commons and OA images, videos and audio in your own promotional materials. By citing to the source/platforms where you located the material, you can raise awareness and hopefully drive interest and use of Flickr, dig.cc.Mixter, etc.
Thank you, and please feel free to contact any of us with feedback or comments on our topical email.
 
--
The EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee
 
Mandy L. Havert (Chair, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Gwyneth Crowley (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Janelle M. Hedstrom (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Li Ma (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
* Rebecca Yoonhee Martin (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Brian A. Quinn (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
* Jacqueline Rae Sipes (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
 
 
 
 

OA Week 2017 Topic 3 - Public Access to Federally Funded Research

 Dear EBSS Librarians,
 
In celebration of International Open Access Week, October 23-29, the EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee will share a weekly message throughout October to help our community answer questions about what benefits open access offers.
 
Our weekly messages will be constructed with information about selected OA topics and suggestions for engaging faculty members and graduate students in conversation. Our weekly messages will support this year's Open Access Week theme, "Open in order to...," This week, you are invited to be "Open in order to expand public access to federally funded research.”
 
Publications and data generated from most federally funded research must be archived online to allow for public access. As librarians, we can help educate scholars on our campuses about the value of these mandates and help with compliance. For more detailed information, ACRL’s Scholarly Communication Toolkit is a great place to start.

Why does this matter to scholars on your campus

  • It’s a requirement for most federally funded research.
  • Compliance (or lack of compliance) can impact their ability to receive additional funding.
  • Increased access to their publications means more people can find, use and cite their work.
  • Public availability to data allows for data reuse. More data will be available for them to freely re-use and build upon.

Why does this matter to librarians?

  • Helping with compliance gives us the opportunity to partner with faculty in new ways.
  • This work offers us a forum for discussing author rights and open access.
  • There is an incentive for involving librarians earlier in the process. We can help scholars build public access plans into their grant proposals and data management plans.
  • There are new opportunities to partner with other research-support units on our campuses.
  • Online access to federally-funded publications and data makes more content available to your users.

What are the rules and guidelines?

The rules vary, but they generally require that pre-prints and data be shared via the agreed upon platform for each funder. Here are a few great tools for finding guidelines for each funding agency:

Thank you, and please feel free to contact any of us with feedback or comments.
 
--
The EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee
 
Mandy L. Havert (Chair, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Gwyneth Crowley (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
* Janelle M. Hedstrom (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Li Ma (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Rebecca Yoonhee Martin (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Brian A. Quinn (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Jacqueline Rae Sipes (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)

OA Week 2017 Topic 4 - Evaluating Open Access Journals and Books

Dear EBSS Librarians,
 
In celebration of International Open Access Week, October 23-29, the EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee share one last weekly message this October to help our community answer questions about what benefits open access offers.
 
These weekly messages are constructed with information about selected OA topics and suggestions for engaging faculty members and graduate students in conversation. Our weekly messages support this year's Open Access Week theme, "Open in order to...," This week, you are invited to be "Open in order to evaluate open access journals and books.”
 
Introduction
 
The non-profit organization SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) defines open access as “the free, immediate, online availability of research articles, coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment.”
 
Open access journals are often financed through charging fees to authors, sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars. In recent years, some open access journals have charged author’s fees and have not provided the traditional services of peer review, editing, and marketing.
 
Critics have labeled these journals predatory or deceptive because they engage in unconventional practices such as soliciting manuscripts, appointing researchers to editorial boards without their knowledge, and engaging in tactics that create a false impression of prestige including inventing inflated or non-existent impact factors and creating journal titles that mimic those of established journals. They also have no real peer-review process or any process to exclude plagiarized material.
 
At the same time, many legitimate but amateurish journals are springing up and it can be difficult to distinguish these journals from deceptive ones. Faculty and graduate students may be approached by these journals asking them to submit their work for a fee, and may not be aware these journals will only provide minimal service in exchange for the fee, such as posting it on their website without peer review or editing. The challenge for librarians is twofold: first to make faculty aware of the problem and, second, to aid faculty in distinguishing legitimate from questionable journals.
 
These questionable publishers also solicit book authors. “Print content farms” or “book mills” solicit manuscripts from scholars. Common targets are authors of recent doctoral dissertations. Email messages are sent to authors expressing interest to obtain the rights, and to publish the dissertations as books. These book publishers also provide little or no editing or marketing services. The books are sold on Amazon and to libraries for high prices. The author will only receive royalties if sales of the book reach a threshold. Predatory book publishers also copy free Wikipedia articles and government publications to create books. These monographs typically use a cookie-cutter design and stock photography to minimize costs.
 
Starting the Conversation
  • Make faculty aware of questionable journals by sharing email solicitations that you receive from predatory publishers
  • Share tools like Beall’s list (still available through Wayback Machine) DOAJ, and Cabell’s Journal Blacklist that faculty can consult to evaluate journals
  • Hold workshops on predatory publishing practices and invite faculty and students
  • Bring to the attention of your faculty and students new articles on questionable journals
  • Partner with the Office of the Vice-President for Research or other such office on your campus to help evaluate faculty requests for funds to publish in open access journals
  • Alert graduate students working on dissertations and theses to be wary of solicitations from unknown publishers promising to turn their dissertation into a published book
  • What can librarians (or faculty and grad students) do?
  • Want to learn more? 
 
Evaluating Open Access Materials
 
Evaluating an open access journal or book falls along similar lines as evaluating print and electronic resources. It can be a complex process and some traditional reference sources (such as Ulrich’s) include open access journals. Below are starting points to help you learn the ropes.  Keep in mind, predatory publishers want your money and will be persistent and devious in their attempts.
 
The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) contains around 9,000 open access journals covering “all areas of science, technology, medicine, social science and humanities.” It’s a great place to start identifying journals. As an independent organization, the funding comes from donations.  This “community-curated online directory”, indexes and provides access to high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. … All DOAJ services are free of charge including being indexed in DOAJ. All data is freely available.”   https://doaj.org/
 
Think. Check. Submit. is a “campaign to help researchers identify trusted journals for their research” and provides a “simple checklist researchers can use to assess the credentials of a journal or publisher.” This site helps researchers decide where to publish their work. Monetary support comes from scholarly publishers and non-profit communications.  http://thinkchecksubmit.org/check/
 
As a trade organization, the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA) “represents the interests of Open Access (OA) publishers globally in all scientific, technical and scholarly disciplines.” Their goals include setting standards for open access, advocating for and educating the research community, and providing an online forum. Their blog can found at https://oaspa.org/blog/  The Board of Directors are from organizations such as Public Library of Science (PLOS), DOAJ, OAPEN Foundation, and PeerJ. These are also organizations that support and create OA initiatives that can be used for evaluating open access materials.
 
“Created by SPARC in conjunction with PLOS and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), the HowOpenIsIt? Open Access Guide standardizes Open Access terminology in an easily understandable, comprehensive resource.” Learn the concepts of open and closed access here to help you with your decision. https://sparcopen.org/our-work/howopenisit/
  
 
Selected Works for Further Inquiry
 
"IMHBCO (in My Humble but Correct Opinion): Another Predatory Journal Sting; Why this One is Different and Matters More." 2017. Against the Grain 29(3): 28-29. 
 
Arthur, Craig. 2015. "Predatory Publishing: How Not to Fall Prey." Virginia Libraries 61(1): 33-36. 
 
Ayeni, Philips Oluwaseun and Niran Adetoro. 2017. "Growth of Predatory Open Access Journals: Implication for Quality Assurance in Library and Information Science Research." Library Hi Tech News 34(1): 17-22. 
 
Balehegn, Mulubrhan. 2017. "Increased Publication in Predatory Journals by Developing Countries' Institutions: What it Entails? and what can be done?" International Information & Library Review 49(2): 97-100. doi:10.1080/10572317.2016.1278188. 
 
Beall, Jeffrey. 2013. "Unethical Practices in Scholarly, Open-Access Publishing." Journal of Information Ethics 22(1): 11-20. 
 
Beaubien, S., Eckard, M. (2014). Addressing Faculty Publishing Concerns with Open Access Journal Quality Indicators. Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication 2(2):1133. http://dx.doi.org/10.7710/2162-3309.1133
 
Berger, Monica and Jill Cirasella. 2015. "Beyond Beall's List: Better Understanding Predatory Publishers." College & Research Libraries News 76(3): 132-135. 
 
Blobaum, Paul. "Practical Tips for Facilitating Research." Journal of the Medical Library Association 105(1): 91. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.5195/jmla.2017.114 
 
Bornemann, Erin. 2013. "Exposing Predatory Publishers." Information Today, Jun 2013, 13.
 
Craft, Anna R. 1. 2016. "Is this a Quality Journal to Publish in? how can You Tell?" Serials Review 42(3): 237-239. doi:10.1080/00987913.2016.1196844 
 
Dadkhah, Mehdi. 2016. "Types of Hijacking in the Academic World - our Experiment in the Scholarly Publishing." Library Hi Tech News 33(3): 1-2.
 
Dobson, Helen. 2016. "Think.Check.Submit: The Campaign Helping Researchers Navigate the Scholarly Communication Landscape." Insights 29(3): 228-232. 
 
Engsberg, Mark. 2017. "Open Access in the USA: A Ridiculously Brief and Hopelessly Incomplete Overview." International Journal of Legal Information 45(1): 42-44. doi:10.1017/jli.2017.19 
 
Garanayak, Satyabrata. 2017. "Predatory Publishing Trends in India: An Overview." SRELS Journal of Information Management 54(1): 18-30. doi:10.17821/srels/2017/v54i1/107454. 
 
Hauptman, Robert. 2016. "Peer Review, Open Access, and Other Publishing Scams." Journal of Information Ethics 25(1): 1-2. 
 
Keiser, Barbie E. 2017. "Scholarly Hiccups Beyond the 'Publish Or Perish' Debate." Online Searcher 41(4): 22-23,40-45.   
 
Nelson, Nerissa and Jennifer Huffman. 2015. "Predatory Journals in Library Databases: How Much should we Worry?" The Serials Librarian 69(2): 169. 
 
Nobes, Andy. 2017. "Critical Thinking in a Post-Beall Vacuum." Research Information, Apr/May 2017, 1. 
 
Nwagwu, W. E. 2016. "Open Access in the Developing Regions: Situating the Altercations about Predatory Publishing." Canadian Journal of Information & Library Sciences 40(1): 58-80. 
 
Nwagwu, Williams Ezinwa. 2015. "Counterpoints about Predatory Open Access and Knowledge Publishing in Africa." Learned Publishing 28(2): 114-122. doi:10.1087/20150205.
 
Ojala, Marydee. 2016. "Beware of Predatory Open Access Publishers." Information Today, Nov 2016, 10-11. 
 
Reynolds, Regina Romano. 2016. "The Predatory Publishing Phenomenon: Dead End Or Just an Inconvenience on the Road to a New Scholarly Publishing Landscape?" Insights 29(3): 233-238.
 
Smart, Pippa. 2017. "Predatory Journals and Researcher Needs." Learned Publishing 30 (2): 103-105. doi:10.1002/leap.1101. 
 
Xia, Jingfeng. 2015. "Predatory Journals and their Article Publishing Charges." Learned Publishing 28(1): 69-74. doi:10.1087/20150111. 
 
Xia, Jingfeng, Jennifer L., Harmon, Kevin G., Connolly, Ryan M., Donnelly, Mary R., Anderson, and Heather A. Howard. 2015. "Who Publishes in 'Predatory' Journals?" Journal of the Association for Information Science & Technology 66(7): 1406-1417. doi:10.1002/asi.23265.
 
Thank you, and please feel free to contact any of us with feedback or comments.
 
--
The EBSS Scholarly Communication Committee
 
Mandy L. Havert (Chair, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
* Gwyneth Crowley (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
Janelle M. Hedstrom (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Li Ma (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Rebecca Yoonhee Martin (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)
* Brian A. Quinn (Member, July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2018)
Jacqueline Rae Sipes (Member, July 1, 2017, to June 30, 2019)