Current Issues in Scientific Publishing

Open Access and Scholarly Publishing Open access publishing is a movement that encourages making scholarly resources more freely available over the internet.  The goal is to maximize the impact of research, particularly research that has been funded with public money.  One of the most notable examples of open access is the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy, which requires that, after a 12-month embargo period, funded research be made publicly available.  Open Access Day at OSU Open Access Day at OSU was marked on October 21, 2009 with a program where editors, authors, and publishers discussed their personal perspectives on open access, the role of open access within different organizations and disciplines, and the financial sustainability of open access.  Participants were: Opening Remarks, Jan Weisenberger, Senior VP, Office of Research Moderator, Tom Sanville, Executive Director of OhioLINK Panelist, David Huron, Professor Music and Editor, Empirical Musicology Review Panelist, Scot Danforth, Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning and Editor, Disability Studies Quarterly Panelist, Deborah Grzybowski, Assistant Professor of Ophthalmology Panelist, Donald Dean, Professor of Biochemistry Panelist, Jack Ochs, American Chemical Society Panelist, Daviess Menefee, Elsevier Publishing Here is a video about the program, and here is a video of the program itself.   Search Twitter hashtag #osuoaday2009 to see what people were saying during the program. The week of October 19 was Open Access Week, and this program was only one of many events that publishers, universities, and libraries all over the world held in order to highlight the movement.    NIH Public Access Policy On January 11, 2008, in response to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced a revision of its Public Access Policy.  Effective April 7, 2008, the Policy requires all funded investigators to deposit (or have deposited for them) their articles in the PubMed Central digital archive of biomedical and life sciences journal literature. Specifics about this new mandatory policy, as well as links to important resources are provided here.  The Prior Health Sciences Library is working with The OSU Research Foundation to help local researchers navigate the policy and procedures.  Local instructions for meeting the mandate requirements are available.  NIH Public Access Policy Resources NIH Policy Overview and Compliance  Frequently Asked Questions About PubMed Central Dec. 09:  PMID: PMCID Converter Oct. 08:  Grantee compliance monitoring by NIH   Manuscript Submission Help

Support New Open Access Publishing Opportunities

The Directory of Open Access and Hybrid Journals
This section of the DOAJ is designed for authors who are exploring publishing their research as open access. Authors can review journal titles by subject area and learn which publishers charge author fees for publishing their works as open access.

Author Rights

• CIC (Big 10 institutions) activities related to author rights and scholarly communication. OSU governance reviewed and endorsed this author rights statement and addendum in 2008.
   
• SHERPA RoMEO Service
  Use this site to find a summary of permissions that are normally given as part of each publisher's copyright transfer agreement.
   
• SPARC Author's Addendum
  Use this form to amend standard publisher agreements, allowing you to retain rights to deposit your article in a non-commercial depository or to use your article in the classes you teach.  Instructions for NIH-related wording is included at this site.

Select organizations and discussion groups

• SPARC: the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, an alliance of universities, research libraries, and organizations
• Open Access News Blog: Current news, including publisher-specific open access programs

Background on journal price increases

• Historical price information from the Library's primary journal vendor, EBSCO
• Recent article on journal price increases, Journal of the Medical Library Association

How the Library can help you

There are many changes taking place in academic publishing today, particularly in the sciences. This web site will be updated as new developments occur.

The Prior Health Sciences Library will work with OSU Health Sciences Center faculty and researchers to better understand the recent NIH Policy, open access publishing initiatives, journal impact factors, and other topics related to scientific publishing. Contact Lynda Hartel, Associate Director.