Can we transform scholarly communication with open source and community‐owned infrastructure?|Learned Publishing

By: SC@S

From Alison McGonagle‐O’Connell and Kristen Ratanin in Learned Publishing: Preview: When it comes to infrastructure, scholarly publishing has been slow to evolve, and recent consolidation has weakened the competitive landscape. Publishers are waking up to learn that their most valuable asset – their publishing pipeline and accompanying workflow data – is suddenly owned by a…

Open educational resources, student efficacy, and user perceptions: a synthesis of research published between…

By: SC@S

From John Hilton in Educational Technology Research and Development: Abstract: Although textbooks are a traditional component in many higher education contexts, their increasing price have led many students to forgo purchasing them and some faculty to seek substitutes. One such alternative is open educational resources (OER). This present study synthesizes results from sixteen efficacy and…

Blurring Lines — Considering the Future of Discovery, Access and Business Models in Support…

By: SC@S

From David Parker in Against the Grain:in: Preview: The open educational resources (OER) movement began in the years between 1999 and 2002, during which time Rice launched its precursor to OpenStax and UNESCO’S 2002 forum on open courseware coined the term OER.; Since these early days the pace of growth in adoption of OER, while…

Big Deal Knowledge Base - SPARC

By: SC@S

From SPARC: Preview: This database puts libraries on a more level playing field with vendors by detailing what thousands of peer institutions have paid for journal subscription packages. Institutions can leverage this pricing data, as well as the other resources on this site, to make clearer assessments about the suitability of these Big Deals and…

Announcing "Mind the Gap," a major report on all available open-source publishing software |…

By: SC@S

From the MIT Press: Preview: Mellon-funded report Mind the Gap: A Landscape Analysis of Open Source Publishing Tools and Platforms catalogs and analyzes all available open-source software for publishing and warns that open publishing must grapple with the dual challenges of siloed development and organization of the community-owned ecosystem The MIT Press is pleased to release…

Q&A: Cengage/McGraw-Hill Merger - SPARC

By: SC@S

From Nicole Allen in SPARC News: Preview: Over the past year, one of SPARC’s top priorities has been tracking the evolution of the academic publishing industry and its implications for the future of research and education. The urgency of the issues outlined in our Landscape Analysis was put into sharp relief in May, when Cengage…

Why Are So Many Scholarly Communication Infrastructure Providers Running a Red Queen’s Race? |…

By: SC@S

From Katherine Skinner in Educopia Institute Community Cultivators: Preview: A few weeks ago, we at Educopia published the first project deliverable for the “Mapping Scholarly Communication Infrastructure” project, which we’re working on with Middlebury College and TrueBearing Consulting. The deliverable is a report and a set of data visualizations based on our deep dive into…

Guest Post - Library Publishers Convene in Vancouver to Discuss Open Platforms and Open…

By: Scholarly Kitchen

From Heather Staines in The Scholarly Kitchen: Preview: From May 8 to 10th of this year, about two hundred librarians, publishers, and all flavors in between gathered at Simon Fraser University (SFU) in Vancouver for the 6th annual Library Publishing Coalition Forum. The Pre-Conference on Wednesday, May 8th, focused on Open Educational Resources, had about…

Renewing the system : Thinking broadly about equity, diversity, and inclusion in scholarly communication…

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From Karen Munro in C&RL News: Preview: The ACRL Board of Directors recently articulated a new core commitment of our strategic plan, the Plan for Excellence. Along with the association’s core purpose, “[t]o lead academic and research librarians and libraries in advancing learning and scholarship,” and our core organizational values, which include visionary leadership, responsible…

In act of brinkmanship, a big publisher cuts off UC’s access to its academic…

By: SC@S

From Michael Hiltzik in the LA Times: Preview: The bitter battle between the University of California, a leading source of published research papers, and Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of research papers, just got more bitter. As of Wednesday, Elsevier cut off access by UC faculty, staff and students to articles published since Jan. 1…