EurekAlert: The MIT Press and UC Berkeley launch Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 journal. “The MIT Press announced today the launch of Rapid Reviews: COVID-19 (RR:C19), an open access, rapid-review overlay journal that will accelerate peer review of COVID-19-related research and deliver real-time, verified scientific information that policymakers and health leaders can use.”
academic journals
Wired: Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journals Don’t Really Do Their Job
Wired: Peer-Reviewed Scientific Journals Don’t Really Do Their Job. “Instead of showing (once again) that formal peer review is vital for good science, the last few months could just as well suggest the opposite. To me, at least—someone who’s served as an editor at seven different journals, and editor in chief at two—the recent spate of decisions to bypass traditional peer review gives the lie to a pair of myths that researchers have encouraged the public to believe for years: First, that peer-reviewed journals publish only trustworthy science; and second, that trustworthy science is published only in peer-reviewed journals.”
BusinessWire: The Institution of Engineering and Technology and Wiley Announce Open Access Publishing Partnership (PRESS RELEASE)
BusinessWire: The Institution of Engineering and Technology and Wiley Announce Open Access Publishing Partnership (PRESS RELEASE). “Under the terms of the publishing agreement, the IET will transition its entire hybrid subscription journals portfolio to a gold OA model, joining its existing gold open access journals, to create a leading collection of engineering and technology open access journals. The IET is working with its existing stakeholders to make this transition.”
World Aquaculture Society: JWAS Moving to Open Access
World Aquaculture Society: JWAS Moving to Open Access. “The WAS Board has recently approved a proposal to make [Journal of the World Aquaculture Society] a fully Open Access (OA) journal, effective January 2021. This decision was made after more than a year of analysis, deliberation, and negotiation with Wiley Publishers. The logistical and financial outcome of this decision will be carefully monitored over the next three years.”
Nature: Hundreds of journals’ editorial practices captured in database
Nature: Hundreds of journals’ editorial practices captured in database. “Funded by the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, and created with the Leiden Centre for Science and Technology Studies, the platform currently hosts a database of 387 journals. It evaluates these journals’ peer-review procedures according to 12 criteria, including: the level of anonymity afforded to authors and reviewers; the use of digital tools such as plagiarism scanners; and the timing of peer review in the research and publication process (see S. P. J. M. Horbach and W. Halffman Scientometrics 118, 339–373; 2019). The platform displays the procedures used by each journal, along with aggregate statistics on the various editorial practices.”
Pipe Dream: SUNY ends contract with ScienceDirect
Pipe Dream: SUNY ends contract with ScienceDirect. “The future of ScienceDirect as a source for scholarly articles is bleak with State University of New York (SUNY) canceling its subscription after a deal could not be made with its publishing company, Elsevier.”
TNW: Learning during the quarantine: You can read JSTOR’s Open Access content without an account
TNW: Learning during the quarantine: You can read JSTOR’s Open Access content without an account. “Yesterday, JSTOR, the famous digital academic library, tweeted that 6,000 of its eBooks and over 150 journals are open for anyone to read. The organization noted it’s bringing out 26 public health journal archives, which you can read until June 30. For folks who previously haven’t had access to JSTOR’s library, you can now rifle through all its open access content without having to create an account.”
Column: COVID-19 could kill the for-profit science publishing model. That would be a good thing (Los Angeles Times)
Los Angeles Times: Column: COVID-19 could kill the for-profit science publishing model. That would be a good thing. “Of all the ways the current coronavirus crisis has upended commonplace routines — such as disrupting global supply chains and forcing workers to stay at home — one of the most positive is how it demonstrates the value of open access to scientific research. Ferreting out a silver lining in an event that has produced the infection of more than 90,000 individuals and taken the lives of more than 3,000 — and is certain to wreak further destruction before it is quelled — is a delicate matter.”
MIT News: MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts yields new open-access model
MIT News: MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts yields new open-access model. “The MIT Libraries has negotiated an innovative open-access agreement with the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) that allows MIT authors to make ACM articles freely available at no cost to them. It is the libraries’ first publisher contract completed under the principles for open scholarship in the MIT Framework for Publisher Contracts, released in October 2019, and the agreement aligns with all elements in the framework.”
The Scientist: Journals Open Access to Coronavirus Resources
The Scientist: Journals Open Access to Coronavirus Resources. “On January 31 this year, a day after the novel coronavirus was designated a public health emergency of global concern, 94 academic journals, societies, institutes, and companies signed a commitment to making research and data on the disease freely available, at least for the duration of the outbreak.”
Phys .org: Scholarly journals work together to disseminate knowledge in ob-gyn
Phys .org: Scholarly journals work together to disseminate knowledge in ob-gyn. “The researchers identified 3,767,874 articles in the journal Science’s Science Citation Index Expanded and profiled the top-cited 100 ob-gyn articles that were published in non-specialty journals, which includes general medicine and surgery journals, and the top-cited 100 ob-gyn articles that were published in specialty journals to see how academic journals work together to disseminate knowledge in the ob-gyn field.”
Ars Technica: Open access journals get a boost from librarians—much to Elsevier’s dismay
Ars Technica: Open access journals get a boost from librarians—much to Elsevier’s dismay. “When Florida State University cancelled its ‘big deal’ contract for all Elsevier’s 2,500 journals last March to save money, the publisher warned it would backfire and cost the library $1 million extra in pay-per-view fees. But even to the surprise of Gale Etschmaier, dean of FSU’s library, the charges after eight months were actually less than $20,000.”
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: UAMS Launches New Online Literary Journal
University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences: UAMS Launches New Online Literary Journal. “Medicine and Meaning, a new UAMS literary journal featuring works of fiction, non-fiction, poetry and images, was launched Feb. 4 to foster creativity, imagination and the arts throughout the academic medical center and the UAMS Health system.”
University of North Carolina Libraries: Scholarly publishing at the tipping point
University of North Carolina Libraries: Scholarly publishing at the tipping point. “Last year, the University Libraries paid Elsevier, a Dutch company, $2.49 million for its package. This year the cost was $2.6 million – a 4.5% increase for the exact same package. The Library is in negotiations with several publishers including Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scientific information. Nothing has been decided; talks could continue into early 2020.”
Times of India: UGC adds 1,000 ‘quality academic journals’ to its list
Times of India: UGC adds 1,000 ‘quality academic journals’ to its list. “The University Grants Commission (UGC)’s ‘Consortium of Academic and Research Ethics (Care)’ has so far added around 1,000 Indian academic journals to its list since it was formed last November, and the list is growing, said Bhushan Patwardhan, vice-chairman of UGC. He said the UGC was seeking to add more ‘credible Indian journals’ to its list under Care. Patwardhan, who was in the city recently, said Care has stakeholders from across fields such as statutory bodies, academies and councils to review the journals every quarter.”
