open science
clock | October 28, 2008Web journals 'narrowing study' by Linda Nordling:
Online publishing has sparked an explosion in the number of places where academics can showcase their work. Today, no field of study is too obscure to have its own dedicated title. But have platforms such as the Journal of Happiness Studies or Archaeoastronomy and Ethnoastronomy News made academic publishing more democratic?
Far from it, says Alex Bentley, an anthropologist at Durham University. "We're just producing so much wordage that nobody has time to read anything. It makes academic publishing, and even science itself, a bit like trying…
clock | October 25, 2008Peter Suber, James Love and Glyn Moody have already blogged about this, but we need to make sure this spreads far and wide:
The AAP and Copyright Alliance want to prod the next President of the US to tilt the unbalanced US copyright law further toward publishers. According to a letter the AAP sent to its members (thanks to James Love and Glyn Moody), the two organizations are trying to identify the positions "that will influence intellectual property policy", and will then "offer suggestions regarding appropriate candidates for these positions to both presidential campaigns."
But first they…
clock | October 23, 2008The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University (which includes students, faculty and staff from Departments of Biology (formerly Zoology, my own Department), Genetics and Entomology) is a group I called home for a large chunk of my own graduate experience. Every year, on top of monthly discussion meetings for members, they organize other interesting events, including this one, coming up in two weeks:
The W. M. Keck Center for Behavioral Biology at North Carolina State University announces its 2008 Professional Development Workshop:
Publishing and Communicating…
clock | October 15, 2008Here is the other one of the two winning posts in the Open Access Day blogging competition: My Father the Anthropologist; or, What I Offer Open Access and Why by Dorothea Salo:
In 1980 or thereabouts--I was eight or nine--my father the anthropologist started yet another rant about serials cancellations at his university's library while he drove the family somewhere in the family car. He thought the problem an artifact of library underfunding, I remember. I don't recall that he ever did anything about it save rail bitterly on the subject to us, his captive, powerless, and resentful audience.…
clock | October 15, 2008Here is one of the two winning posts in the Open Access Day blogging competition. A poem by Greg Laden:
A poem for Open Access Day
Open Access Day
They said:
"if you publish
in an open forum
your paper'd be rubbish
and clearly hokum"
"pub's commercial know
how to review with the peerage,
how to make data flow
and hurdles clearage"
"limited space on the page
with every new edition
so few make the passage,
it's editorial selection!"
"we have always done
and it's never been changed
the readers we dunn
and the paper's in chains"
"what is ought to be
why change it now
it is so plain to see…
clock | October 15, 2008The Open Access Day blogging competition is now over. We received over 40 excellent entries that took quite a nice chunk of last night to read - they are all good so go and read them all.
In the end, we decided that one prize is not enough and are awarding the First Place to two bloggers:
Dorothea Salo, for her post: My Father the Anthropologist; or, What I Offer Open Access and Why (already cross-posted on the PloS Blog and soon will be posted here and a couple of other places). Dorothea is the Digital Repository Librarian at the University of Wisconsin, where she serves the state…
clock | October 14, 2008As you know, blog posts about Open Access - What It Means To Me? are in competition today! I will be posting and updating the links of entries throughout the day (until midnight Eastern) for all to see - if I miss yours, send me the URL of your entry.
Caveat Lector: My Father the Anthropologist; or, What I Offer Open Access and Why
Greg Laden's blog: A poem for Open Access Day
A k8, a cat, a mission: Open Access Day
Laelaps: Happy Open Access Day!
Moneduloides: Why Does Open Access Matter To You?
Stuff: Open Access Day - How are we sharing our knowledge?
The Parachute: Open Access Day…
clock | October 13, 2008Tomorrow is the Open Access Day and today you can watch the videos, like this one, for example:
Barbara Stebbins, Middle School Science Teacher from Open Access Videos on Vimeo.
clock | October 10, 2008Open Access Day is on October 14th (don't tell me I did not warn you in advance!). The day will be marked with lots of events, online and offline (if you are local, you may choose to go to Duke, for instance) so watch my blog for more information on Tuesday.
What you as a blogger will probably be most interested in is the Blogging Contest!
How does it work? Well, you are all supposed to synchroblog on Tuesday (but NOT before) on the topic:"Why does Open Access matter to me?"
Write a post and publish it on October 14th, and you will be entered in the competition and you can win a bag of swag…
clock | October 7, 2008Open access publisher BioMed Central sold to Springer:
Those in the open access movement had watched BioMed Central with keen interest. Founded in 2000, it was the first for-profit open access publisher and advocates feared that when the company was sold, its approach might change. But Cockerill assured editors that a BMC board of trustees "will continue to safeguard BioMed Central's open access policy in the future." Springer "has been notable...for its willingness to experiment with open access publishing," Cockerill said in a release circulated with the email to editors.
clock | October 5, 2008The October issue of the Journal of Biological Rhythms came in late last week - the only scientific journal I get in hard-copy these days. Along with several other interesting articles, one that immediately drew my attention was Clock Gene Wikis Available: Join the 'Long Tail' by John B. Hogenesch and Andrew I. Su (J Biol Rhythms 2008 23: 456-457.), especially since John Hogenesh and I talked about it in May at the SRBR meeting.
Now some of you may be quick to make a connection between this article and its author Andrew Su and A Gene Wiki for Community Annotation of Gene Function, published…
clock | October 3, 2008Can You Heal Me Now?
While many Americans view cell phones as indispensable to their social and professional lives, more and more Africans are finding cell phones to be indispensable to good health. In sub-Saharan villages, for example, mobile phones are playing a key role in health care delivery, says Dr. Fay Cobb Payton, an associate professor of information systems and technology in the NC State College of Management.
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"The pervasive use of mobile technology surprised me," she says, noting cellular towers have arrived in many parts of Africa before land lines. "The…
clock | October 2, 2008
Open Access Day is on October 14th. This day is organized by SPARC, Students for FreeCulture and PLoS.
Why?
Open Access is a growing international movement that uses the Internet to throw open the locked doors that once hid knowledge. It encourages the unrestricted sharing of research results with everyone, everywhere, for the advancement and enjoyment of science and society.
You should participate and register. Already, there are 100 organizations taking part, and the registration closes tomorrow so you have to act fast!
You can help by spreading the word. On October 14th, there will be a…
clock | September 25, 2008As you may have already heard, Alias Zerhouni will step down from his position of the NIH director in October, not waiting for the inauguration of a new Administration. He has been a strong and effective proponent of Open Access and I hope his successor will be as well. The blogospheric responses are all over the spectrum, from very positive to very negative, depending on what aspects of his tenure are the focus. Here are some examples:
Heather Morrison:
Dr. Zerhouni has led the NIH through the long process of the NIH Public Access mandate, first the voluntary policy, then the mandatory…
clock | September 24, 2008The PLoS Biology article about science blogs and their (potential) relationship to the academic institutions has, as expected, received quite a lot of coverage in the blogosphere. Nick collects the responses and responds to the responses - join in the conversation in the comments there. Update: So does Tara.
Update: Jessica's post is what I would have written. Now I don't need to - go read hers.
clock | September 24, 2008Go to Mimi's place and state your position:
For a long time, if you wanted to read up on science news or get background information for research, you had to hope that the media got it right, have a subscription to a few journals ( there are thousands though, so you are missing out), or be lucky enough to work at an institute/organization that gives you access to journals online and has a few (hundred) bound copies. Before legislation was passed to make NIH funded research available to the public after a year, no one really knew what was going on in the world of research and development.
This…