This (good) news, from AlphaGalileo, ties in nicely with what has recently been passed on by Jim O’Connell (Palanth.Forum - Forum Boards - Faunal studies and Taphonomy), i.e., free or open access to a number of papers written by various researchers at the University of Utah.
It speaks to an increasingly aggressive move on the part of many institutions, organizations, and responsible individuals to “democratize” as it were, the free dissemination of a broad range of scientific literature. Certainly worth monitoring, especially if these various efforts end up providing us with palaeoanthropologically relevant material.
Lund University Establishes Directory Of Open Access Journals
For further information, please contact:
Alison Buckholtz
SPARC
alison@arl.org202 296 2296 x115
14 February 2003
keywords
Public Dialogue - science, Public Dialogue - technology & industry, Public Dialogue - health, Public dialogue - arts, Public Dialogue - humanities, Public Dialogue - Society & Culture
Open Society Institute and SPARC Support Far-Reaching Library Project
The Information Program of the Open Society Institute, along with SPARC (The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and Lund University Libraries, Sweden, today announced the establishment of the Directory of Open Access Journals
(DOA):
http://www.doaj.org. The project will create a directory of
open access journals and will be completed in late spring 2003.
The Directory of Open Access Journals aims to increase the visibility
and ease of use of open access scientific journals, thereby promoting their increased usage and impact. The Directory will comprehensively cover all open access scientific journals that use an appropriate quality control system, and it will not be limited to particular languages or subject areas.
The DOAJ will be implemented in two phases. During the first half,
the Directory itself will be established. The second phase involves
developing a comprehensive search system for article-level content.
Phase two will begin in late spring 2003.
To ensure the wide dissemination of the directory, the Open Society
Institute will work with the eIFL Network (
http://www.eifl.net), an
umbrella organization for national library consortia in nearly 50
countries, to make the directory available to more than 3,000
libraries developing countries.
"Open access journals can compete with traditional subscription-based journals if librarians and users are made aware of these titles, and the Directory of Open Access Journals is the way to publicize their existence," said Melissa Hagemann, Program Manager of the Open Access Program at the Open Society Institute. "We believe the Directory will become a major reference tool for the scholarly communications community, and we are proud to be able to collaborate with Lund University and SPARC to support the development of this importantproject."
"The Directory of Open Access Journals is a much-needed effort to
insure open access journals are fully integrated into library
services and that they deliver on the promise of expanded access and increased impact for research," said Rick Johnson, SPARC Enterprise Director. "New open-access titles are coming on-line all the time, and the financial debacle stemming from the recent demise of subscription agent RoweCom/Faxon drives home yet another compelling argument for open access publishing. SPARC is proud to collaborate with Lund University Libraries on this ground-breaking development effort."
"Lund University Libraries deeply believes in the movement towards
open access to scientific information," said Lars Björnshauge,
Director, Lund University Libraries. "This partnership with the Open
Society Institute and SPARC will facilitate easy access to the many
high-quality journals that are offered free of charge, thus moving
scholarly communications into the next phase."
To include an open-access journal in the Directory of Open Access
Journals, please contact Sara Kjellberg,
sara.kjellberg@lub.lu.se.
Notes for editor
Lund University Libraries Head Office
(
http://www.lub.lu.se/index.html.en) is the co-ordinating body for
Library & Information services within the Lund University Library
network. It has had long track record in the field of Research and
Development at a national and international level and has been a
forerunner in the adoption of technologies and organizational
solutions supporting Open Access and similar initiatives.
Open Society Institute
The Open Society Institute-Budapest <http://www.osi.hu> is a private operating and grantmaking foundation that develops and implements a range of programs in civil society, culture, education, media, public administration, public health, and human and women's rights, as well as social, legal and economic reform. OSI-Budapest is part of the Soros foundations network, an informal network of organizations established and supported by investor and philanthropist George Soros, and active in more than 50 countries worldwide. Together with the New York-based Open Society Institute, OSI-Budapest provides support and assistance to Soros foundations in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, Guatemala, Haiti, Mongolia, and Southern and West Africa.
SPARC
SPARC and SPARC Europe are coalitions of research universities and
libraries supporting increased competition in scholarly publishing.
Membership currently numbers approximately 240 institutions and
library consortia in North America, the U.K. and Europe, Australia,
New Zealand and Asia. SPARC is also affiliated with major library
organizations in Canada, the U.K. and Ireland, Denmark, Australia and the USA. SPARC is located on the web at
http://www.arl.org/sparc;SPARC Europe is located on the web at
http://www.sparceurope.org.
For further information please contact:
Lars Björnshauge,
lars.bjornshauge@lub.lu.seSara Kjellberg,
sara.kjellberg@lub.lu.sehttp://www.lub.lu.se/index.html.en
