Good Examples and Links
June 12, 2008 – 9:51 amCreated with support from the National Library of Sweden and its development program OpenAccess.se
Lars Jonsson & Maria Kinger, 2007
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/se/
Introduction
This module consists of a commented collection of links to resources, information, etc. regarding Open Access. To some extent the text is a repetition of that which has already been mentioned in the other modules, but it can at the same time be seen as a form of linked summary.
Archive
Open archives exists all over the world, with an emphasis on Western Europe and the US. The size of archive varies largely from containing a few single posts to containing up to about half a million. Instead of listing all these archives we have chosen to give examples of entries to directories of open archives. No list covers all existing archives but together the two mentioned below provide good coverage. The way to calculate the number of archives may vary. A Swedish example: in ROAR all university- and university college archives based on the Swedish DiVA platform (see below) are listed, while if you study the list of indexed archives in the search service BASE (see below) the DiVA portal is listed as an archive.
Archive lists
OpenDOAR - The Directory of Open Access Repositories
Aims to create a complete authenticity-checked list of OA archives. Each listed archive has been reviewed by the project’s editorial staff. Thus, the list is not only automate-generated but also exposed to certain examination. The archives are listed geographically and short information is given about each separate archive. Besides a list of archives the possibility to search for a specific archive from criteria like the archive type, geographical location and its contents is also offered. OpenDOAR also offers a simple interface to cross search the archives. The project is administered and developed by the University of Nottingham.
ROAR - Registry of Open Access Repositories
This is a list with two basic functions. Partly to monitor the total growth of OA archives, and partly to maintain a list of OA archives based on GNU EPrints (see below). ROAR offers several search possibilities such as searching on type of archive, type of software, geographical location of archive, and also the possibility to search the contents of the archives. The list contains brief information together with a graphic profile to illustrate the growth over year for each separate archive. The registry builds on the self-registering of listed archives for further approval of the project’s editorial staff. Unlike OpenDOAR, OA journals are also listed here to some extent. ROAR is administered by the University of Southampton.
Exemples of established and large archives
A couple of individual archives may still be mentioned as they are greatly significant to their respective subject fields.
arXiv
Started already in 1991 and is with that also the first, still living archive of its kind. At the same time it is one of the largest and mostly used archives and today it is also an international project with a central position in physics as a research field. From the beginning the arXiv only contained publications in high-energy physics but today it also covers physics, mathematics, computer science and quantitative biology.
CogPrints
Archive with material in the subject field of cognitive science.
Citeseer
A digital library and search service for scholarly material principally in the subject fields of computer- and information science. Indexes research articles in the formats PostScript and PDF from the Web. Indexes full text and metadata and citations to other on-line articles. In addition to searches for documents the service offers citation searches and citation indexes from the indexed material. (For citation analyzes see also Citebase below)
PubMed Central (PMC)
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov
The free digital archive of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) with reviewed journal articles in the subject fields of biomedicine and life sciences. The publishing companies freely deposit the material in the database and can also choose to place a certain delay on full-text accessibility. The copyright remains with the publishing company or the author.
RePEc (Research Papers in Economics)
In addition to a lot of other material the archive contains links to full-text documents in the subject field of economics.
Search services
Parallelly to the development of different types of software for the building up of digital archives, the Open Archive Initiative (see below) has come up with the standard OAI-PMH (Open Archive Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) to make possible the interoperability between different archives. With OAI-compatible archives as a basis the focus and contents of the various search services differ from each other - some of them also index other digital resources available on the Web. A selection is given below. For a more extensive list see: http://www.openarchives.org/service/listproviders.html See also the module Increased exposure and accessibility. Besides these registered services listed below, to some extent the general Internet search services such as Google Scholar, Yahoo and Elsevier’s search service Scirus index material from OAI-compatible archives.
OAister
http://oaister.umdl.umich.edu/o/oaister/
OAIster is a union catalogue of digital resources. The database consists of bibliographic metadata collected through so-called harvesting via OAI-PMH (the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting) from archives that are compatible with this standard. Indexes all types of digital resources like text, sound, images, data, etc. The database is updated every week. The service offers a search interface with the selection possibilities of title, author/creator, subject and language. Can also be limited to type of resource. It is a well-established project, developed and administered by the University of Michigan.
Citebase
http://citebase.eprints.org/cgi-bin/search
Concurrently with the increase in the number of OA articles the interest in and possibilities for making citation- and impact analyses have arisen, as this constitutes such a central part of the scholarly publishing process. In addition to being a traditional search serve Citebase is also a tool for citation- and impact analyses based on references indexed from OAI- compatible archives in the subject fields of physics, mathematics, information science and biomedicine. Developed by the Open Citation Project http://opcit.eprints.org/oacitation-biblio.html
BASE - Bielefeld Academic Search Engine
http://www.base-search.net/index.php?l=en
Search service for scholarly material published on the Web. Collects metadata from OAI-PMH-compatible archives but also from other Web resources considered suitable. The search can be limited to only apply to freely accessible material. Developed and administered at the Bielefeld University Library.
Scientific Commons
http://en.scientificcommons.org
The ScientificCommons.org project makes it possible to access the largely distributed sources with their vast amount of scientific publications via just one common interface.
Uppsök
http://uppsok.libris.kb.se/sru/uppsok
A search service based on the OAI protocol that indexes degree projects and student theses in full text from Swedish universities and university colleges. A search interface is offered via Libris. Uppsök is administered by the National Library of Sweden.
Journals
Like the archives a great number of OA journals exist (and the number continues to grow), for what reason we here have chosen not to give direct examples of individual titles. Instead appropriate entries are given, such as catalogues and examples of publishing companies with different interests that publish OA journals. No so-called hybrid journals are listed below. For more information about OA and hybrid journals see the module Publishing in Open Access Journals.
DOAJ - Directory of Open Access Journals
Catalogue of freely accessible scholarly reviewed OA journals. For visibility of OA journals and consequent increased use and impact. The service aims at covering all subject fields. Besides the possibility to search for a journal it is also possible to search the tables of contents of some journals. Developed and administered by the Lund University Library.
Hindawi
http://www.hindawi.com
An academic publisher with Open Access journals covering all major areas of science, technology, and medicine.
Journal Info
The purpose is to provide an aid for the researcher in the selection of journal for publication. The publication market has continuously grown more and more complex. It is important to weigh in facts like scope and quality, but more recently also information about reader availability and library cost. The Lund University Libraries have made an attempt to merge all there items into one tool, giving the researcher the power to make informed choices.
Open J-Gate
A catalogue of OA journals, both reviewed journals and trade magazines.
BioMed Central
Commercial publishing company which puts out about 200 OA journals in the subject fields of biology and medicine. Also offers the possibility to start new OA journals, alternatively conversion of already existing subscription-based journals into OA journals under the administration of BioMed Central. Charges a fee, so-called “article-processing charges,” to cover publishing costs. Also charges a membership fee. Uses Creative Commons licences for copyright.
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Non-profit publishing company that puts out reviewed OA journals, whereof PLOS Biology and PLoS Medicine are examples of the fact that also OA journals can reach a high-ranking position. Financed in part through memberships and uses Creative Commons licences for copyright
Software
A lot of different software exists today, both commercial and open source, to create electronic archives and OA journals. Below is a list of some of the most used and spread software. For a more complete list of software see: A Guide to Institutional Repository Software v 3.0 http://www.soros.org/openaccess/software/OSI_Guide_to_Institutional_Repository_Software_v3.htm for archives, and Journal Management Systems http://www.arl.org/sparc/resources/pubres.html#journals for journals.
EPrints
http://www.eprints.org/software
The first publishing tool and platform to create a Web-based electronic archive. Launched in 2000 and has since then come out in several updated versions. From the beginning intended for researchers for the spreading of electronic articles through self-depositing of the articles for storage in a searchable archive. The material for archiving can today be constituted by many different types, from text files to multimedia and sound files. The software is open source, in other words it is free to use and develop as one chooses. However, there are additional services as installation help etc. which you have to pay for. Eprints offers a search interface to search the archive and its full texts. The system is OAI-compatible and multilingual; a Swedish translation is in progress. An advantage with EPrints is that it is well established, and that the software is updated and developed continuously. The great number of users also results in there being a large forum for the exchange of experiences. EPrints is developed and administered by the University of Southampton.
Dspace
http://dspace.org/technology/index.html
Offers open-source software for the creation of an OAI-compatible digital archive that can store different types of material such as text, images, data, sound files etc. From the beginning DSpace was more adapted to multidisciplinary institutions larger than EPrints. Another difference was that DSpace focused a bit more on long-term preservation. The software was developed by MIT Libraries in collaboration with Hewlett Packard Labs, and today it is administered by the library at MIT, USA. DSpace is an established system with many users, which means that there is a large forum for the exchange of experiences. On DSpace Wiki http://wiki.dspace.org you find more information.
Fedora - Flexible Extensible Digital Object and Repository Architecture
Offers open-source software for the creation of digital archives consisting of many different types of digital objects. Fedora can handle up to one million objects. Developed by the University of Virginia Library and Cornell University and launched in 2003.
CDS Invenio
http://cdsware.cern.ch/invenio/index.html
Earlier called CdSware and developed at Cern where a proper digital library for pre-prints, articles, books, etc. was created from the beginning. The software is accessible as open source and is OAI-compatible. Some twenty institutions use the software today.
Greenstone
Open-source software to create digital libraries for different types of material. OAI-compatible. Developed and administered by the University at Waikato, Nya Zeeland.
Digital Commons
http://www.umi.com/products_umi/digitalcommons
An example of a commercial platform for an institutional OAI-compatible digital archive. Launched in 2002 by The Berkeley Electronic Press (Bepress). Today it forms part of ProQuest Information & Learning. The participating archives can also be searched via a joint search interface.
DiVA - the Academic Archive Online
A publishing system developed at Uppsala University Library, and since 2003 in full operation. DiVA portal is a search tool and an institutional repository for research publications and student theses written at a number of different universities and colleges of higher education. The contents are primarily made up by dissertations and student theses, but also include full-text articles and reports.
OJS - Open Journal System
Open-source software for the creation of OA journals. Created to handle the entire publishing chain from the submitting of an article via reviewing to publishing. Developed at the University of British Columbia, the Simon Fraser University Library and the Canadian Centre for Studies in Publishing at Simon Fraser University.
Initiatives, organisations, projects, forums etc.
Below you will find a list of organisations, initiatives, projects, forums, etc. which may be useful entries to the subject of Open Access. Some of them are general while others focus on a specific area or aspect.
Fundamental initiatives
For further information about these three central initiatives see the module International and National Initiatives
Budapest Open Access Initiative
http://www.soros.org/openaccess/index.shtml
Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters
Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities
http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin
Washington D.C. Principles For Free Access to Science
Organisations or similar
Create Change
Initiative developed by the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) and SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) with the purpose of advancing new possibilities and models in scholarly communication. Focuses primarily on changes made possible through digitalization.
Creative Commons
A non-profit organisation which offers free licences to copyright protect different types of work. The originator creates a licence based on the kind of rights that should apply to the work.
Open Archives Initiative
Developing work to standardize and make possible interoperability between different systems for storage and spreading of digital scholarly material. Has developed the protocol OAI-PMH among other things which forms the basis of the different search services mentioned above and makes cross searching of various archives possible.
SHERPA
Consortium consisting of some 30 institutions based in Great Britain which runs projects about matters concerning Open Access. Among other things projects like SHERPA/RoMEO, SHERPA/JULIET and OpenDOAR have developed from this collaboration.
SPARC - The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition
International collaboration between research libraries with the purpose of creating change in the scholarly publishing system. Focus on the stimulation of development and the growth of new and alternative models for scholarly communication. This in order to facilitate the dissemination of research material, but also to reduce costs, for example for libraries. Collected information about OA. Provides training material, presentations, forums together with other resources and guides for libraries, researchers, publishing companies. Here you will, for example, find SPARC’s “Author Addendum” - an addendum for the researcher to make possible a supplement to the publishing contract made with a publishing company, so as to increase the rights to the published material.
SUHF - the Association of Swedish higher education
Handles joint matters regarding higher education, research, organisation of university colleges, resource needs, etc., for example through contributing to the implementation of Open Access and stimulating the discussion of the merit-rating systems so that these will consider this form of publishing in a proper way.
The Swedish Research Council
Government institution that develops and funds basic research in all fields of science. The Research Council works with research funding, strategies and analyses and also research information.
Projects or similar
DRIVER
http://www.driver-repository.eu/
Networking European Digital repositories - project with start in spring 2007 with the purpose of creating a European database based on existing archives in Europe. The goal is a future joint European digital archive for researchers, contributors and institutions, with different services such as storage, searches and recommendations.
Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook - “aims to provide an authoritative ‘sourcebook’ on Open Access, covering the concept, principles, advantages, approaches and means to achieving it.”
Openaccess.se
Program sorting under the National Library of Sweden with the objective of promoting maximum accessibility and visibility for works produced by researchers, teachers and students at Swedish universities and university colleges. In progress until and including 2009.
Sciecom
Swedish resource centre for scholarly communication. Project supported by the National Library of Sweden and administered at Lund University and concluded in 2006, but with a solid collection of links concerning matters on among other things Open Access still available.
SHERPA/JULIET
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/juliet/index.php
A compilation of contributors’ attitudes to Open Access. Lists possible requirements from contributors concerning archiving and in such case specifications on what to archive. With a few exceptions the contributors are exclusively based in Great Britain (March 2007).
SHERPA/RoMEO
http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php
A compilation of the policies of publishing companies/journals regarding self-archiving and copyright. Classified into four colour codes: green: archiving of both pre-print and post-print OK, blue: archiving of post-print OK , yellow: archiving of pre-print OK, and white: archiving not allowed. Also contains a brief definition of the meaning of pre-print and post-print. For more information see the section Publishing in Open Archives under the module Open Access Publishing.
Other information
Economic Implications of Alternative Scholarly Publishing Models: Exploring the costs and benefits
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/publications/documents/economicpublishingmodelsfinalreport.aspx
A Report from Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) that investigates the costs and benefits of alternative publishing.
Open Archives Forum
Forum with a European focus on open archives in general and the Open Archives Initiative in particular.
The Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
http://www.digital-scholarship.com/sepb/sepb.html
Bibliography of literature on and about electronic publishing.
WIPO Guide to Intellectual Property Worldwide
http://www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/ipworldwide
A guide to different countries’ legislation on, among other things, copyright issues.
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