Scholarly Communication

An interesting development in alternative business models has been put forward by the high-energy physics community, through their SCOAP3 initiative (www.scoap3.org), Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing.  In short, they are attempting to turn the entire field of high-energy physics open access.  By creating a super-consortium, they would make a tender offer to the current publishers of HEP physics.  The publishers would be guaranteed operating money to cover the cost of editorial work, and in return, they offer up the content freely to the entire world.  National Labs, funding agencies, and libraries all might be part of this consortium, and one of the hopes is that the costs to the scholarly community overall would drop significantly, since we would be switching from the relatively inelastic subscription model, where libraries have to buy in or their community loses out, to an author/payer focused model where publishers will lose out if they don’t keep costs at a level that is supported by the consortium.  

With something this bold and ambitious, obviously there are a lot of details to be settled…but the idea is getting a lot of traction in Europe, and enthusiasm is building in the US, where HEPAP (the High Energy Physics Advisory Panel) “strongly supports this initiative”…contingent on the resolution of financial concerns (always a big if!).  

A good summary of the project was published in Symmetry:  http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/cms/?pid=1000551

And the HEPAP presentations: one by a SCOAP3 representative, Salvatore Mele:  (http://www.science.doe.gov/hep/HEPAP/November2007/HEPAP-301107.pdf)

Another, cautionary one, by the Editor in Chief of the American Physical Society, Gene Sprouse: http://www.science.doe.gov/hep/HEPAP/November2007/hepap2-1.pdf)

–Michael Fosmire  

Published impact factors affect authors’ decisions about manuscript submission, funding awards, and promotion and tenure. While  critiques of the use of impact factors are common, this report by the editors of the Journal of Cell Biology and the Journal of Experimental Medicine is the first to raise serious questions about the underlying validity of the data used to calculate impact factors and therefore the accurracy of the metrics that are published

Mike Rossner, Heather Van Epps, and Emma Hill reported on their inability to verify published impact factors using data provided provided by ISI.    In their report, they note that they were unable to replicate published impact factors for their own and other journals,  found numerous and serious errors in several data sets provided by ISI, and call into question the validity of both ISI’s dataset and their published impact factors.  

The editorial by Mike Rossner, Heather Van Epps, and Emma Hill was published in the Journal of Cell Biology and is available at http://www.jcb.org/cgi/content/full/179/6/1091 

–Beth McNeil (with content from Karla Hahn, ARL)

On December 26, 2007, President Bush signed the omnibus appropriations bill, including the NIH research access provision requiring the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) to mandate open access for NIH-funded research. This is major news, as it’s the first OA mandate for a major public funding agency in the US, and sets a precedent for other US agencies wanting to move in this way.

The NIH is the world’s largest funding provider for scientific research, with a budget last year of $28 million. This open access mandate will mean an unprecedented quantity of research will be available.

For more information, visit http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/media/release07-1226.html  and http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/20/AR2007122002115_pf.html.

Victor Lechtenberg, Interim Provost, appointed a Scholarly Communication Task Force earlier this fall. James Mullins, Dean of Libraries, chairs the task force. Members of the Purdue Scholarly Communication Task Force are Thomas Bacher, Director, University Press; George Bodner, A. Kelly Distinguished Professor of Chemistry & Education; Nancy Bulger, Assistant Provost; Peter Dunn, Associate Vice Provost for Research; Christine Ladisch, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs; John Larson, Professor & Director of Graduate Education; Beth McNeil, Associate Dean, Libraries; Cindy Nakatsu, Interim Dean, Graduate School; and Bernard Tao, Professor, Agricultural Engineering & Food Science.

What is scholarly communication? While definitions vary, most agree that scholarly communication is the system through which research and other scholarly writings are created, evaluated for quality, disseminated to the scholarly community, and preserved for future use.

Why does Purdue have a task force on scholarly communication? The traditional system of scholarly communication is evolving. Electronic publishing, innovative business models, and the intervention of scholars and societies offer new opportunities for sharing scholarly information. The Task Force was formed to bring together diverse view points on the issues related to scholarly communication and to help inform campus of the changing issues. 

We plan to post information about scholarly communication in general, and specific Purdue-related information, at this site. Please visit often!