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OA policy of RCUK
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

Friends: Please visit <http://open-access.web.cern.ch/Open-Access/docs/20051207_LEMASURIER.pdf> to know about the stand taken by RCUK on OA. Regards. Arun

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US agencies may mandate OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

Mandated OA for publicly-funded medical research in the US Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-CT) introduced a bill into the U.S. Senate yesterday that would mandate OA to publicly-funded medical research within four months of its publication. Officially titled the American Center for Cures Act of 2005, the bill is informally known as the CURES Act. It would create a new agency within the NIH, the American Center for Cures (ACC), whose primary mission would be to translate fundamental research into therapies. The bill is very large and covers a lot of territory, but for our purposes the critical part is Section 499H. Like the existing NIH policy, the CURES Act would apply only to the author's final peer-reviewed manuscript, although copyright holders would have the option to replace it with the final published text. Public access would be provided by PubMed Central. The bill goes beyond the NIH policy in several important ways. It requires free online access and does not merely request it. It shortens the permissible delay to four months. It extends the OA policy beyond the NIH to research funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Healthcare Research. Finally, it explicitly says that non-compliance may be a ground for the funding agency to refuse future funding. The bill is co-sponsored by Thad Cochran (R-MS). See the summary of the bill (discussing all its important provisions except the OA mandate), the section-by-section breakdown (the OA mandate is in Section 499H), and some quotations from supporters. (PS: This is a major step. It would effectively mandate OA to all medical research funded by the Department of Health and Human Services, making it more effective and wider in scope than the NIH public-access policy. More later, I promise.) Update. First a correction. The bill was introduced December 7, not December 8. Now some more links: * Press release from Senator Lieberman's office * Press release from the Alliance for Taxpayer Access. Excerpt: The Cures Bill is exactly the medicine thats needed, said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and a leader of the ATA. It goes right to the heart of the case for unfettered access to publicly funded research. Senators Lieberman and Cochran took a close look at how best to speed development of treatments for diseases. Among their conclusions is that its time we ensure the research were already conducting is available to all potential users. Pat Furlong, executive director of Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy and an ATA member, was also pleased with the bill. It recognizes how important the sharing of information is to speeding research and translating new knowledge into cures, said Furlong. In the age of the Internet, it makes no sense for the results of taxpayer-funded research to be hidden away.

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Indian Science Academies support OA
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

What do the Indian science academies know that the Royal Society doesn't know? Subbiah Arunachalam, Indian science academies support open access, SciDev.net, December 8, 2005. A letter to the editor. Excerpt: I read Barbara Kirsop's letter...on the appalling stand taken by the UK Royal Society on open access. Thankfully, the science academies in India are supporting open access. In fact, all the journals published by the Indian National Science Academy, currently presided over by a fellow of the UK Royal Society, are open access journals and one can search and download articles from volume 1, number 1. All 11 journals published by the Indian Academy of Sciences, also presided over by a fellow of the UK Royal Society, are also open access journals, and there are currently efforts underway to make all previous volumes open access. What is more, unlike the Public Library of Science and BioMed Central, these two academies do not charge authors (or their institutions) a fee for publishing their papers. They do charge for subscriptions to the print versions as opposed to online versions of their journals.

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Free report on pollutants
by Subbiah Arunachalam 10 Dec '05

10 Dec '05

Don't cut back on OA info about toxic pollutants The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) currently sends out annual OA reports on toxic pollutants as part of its Toxic Release Inventory program. It is proposing to cut back the reports to every other year. I urge US citizens to submit a comment before January 13 asking the EPA to continue the annual reports. The easiest way is to submit a comment is to use the action alert from OMB Watch, which will send copies of your message to Congress as well as the EPA.

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[LIS-Forum] Version 60, Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography
by Charles W. Bailey, Jr. 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Version 60 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available. This selective bibliography presents over 2,560 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.pdf The Open Access Bibliography: Liberating Scholarly Literature with E-Prints and Open Access Journals, by the same author, provides much more in-depth coverage of the open access movement and related topics (e.g., disciplinary archives, e-prints, institutional repositories, open access journals, and the Open Archives Initiative) than SEPB does. http://www.escholarlypub.com/oab/oab.htm The Open Access Webliography (with Ho) complements the OAB, providing access to a number of Websites related to open access topics. http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/oaw.htm Changes in This Version The bibliography has the following sections (revised sections are marked with an asterisk): Table of Contents 1 Economic Issues 2 Electronic Books and Texts 2.1 Case Studies and History* 2.2 General Works 2.3 Library Issues* 3 Electronic Serials 3.1 Case Studies and History* 3.2 Critiques 3.3 Electronic Distribution of Printed Journals* 3.4 General Works* 3.5 Library Issues* 3.6 Research* 4 General Works* 5 Legal Issues 5.1 Intellectual Property Rights* 5.2 License Agreements* 5.3 Other Legal Issues 6 Library Issues 6.1 Cataloging, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata* 6.2 Digital Libraries* 6.3 General Works* 6.4 Information Integrity and Preservation* 7 New Publishing Models* 8 Publisher Issues* 8.1 Digital Rights Management 9 Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI* Appendix A. Related Bibliographies* Appendix B. About the Author* Appendix C. SEPB Use Statistics Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources includes the following sections: Cataloging, Identifiers, Linking, and Metadata* Digital Libraries* Electronic Books and Texts* Electronic Serials* General Electronic Publishing* Images Legal* Preservation* Publishers Repositories, E-Prints, and OAI* SGML and Related Standards Further Information about SEPB The HTML version of SEPB is designed for interactive use. Each major section is a separate file. There are links to sources that are freely available on the Internet. It can be can be searched using Boolean operators. The HTML document includes three sections not found in the Acrobat file: (1) Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog (biweekly list of new resources; also available by mailing list--see second URL--and RSS Feed--see third URL) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepwlist.htm http://feeds.feedburner.com/ScholarlyElectronicPublishingWeblogrss (2) Scholarly Electronic Publishing Resources (directory of over 270 related Web sites) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepr.htm (3) Archive (prior versions of the bibliography) http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/archive/sepa.htm The Acrobat file is designed for printing. The printed bibliography is over 210 pages long. The Acrobat file is over 560 KB. Related Article An article about the bibliography has been published in The Journal of Electronic Publishing: http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/07-02/bailey.html -- Best Regards, Charles Charles W. Bailey, Jr., Assistant Dean for Digital Library Planning and Development, University of Houston Libraries Home: http://www.escholarlypub.com/ DigitalKoans: http://www.escholarlypub.com/digitalkoans/ Open Access Bibliography: http://www.escholarlypub.com/oab/oab.htm Open Access Webliography: http://www.escholarlypub.com/cwb/oaw.htm Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepb.html Scholarly Electronic Publishing Weblog: http://info.lib.uh.edu/sepb/sepw.htm

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Foreign Languages Lab - advice and caution requested from all
by Parinita Samant 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Dear All, I plan to start off with a Foreign Languages Lab in my organization. Have anyone of you any experiences regarding the establishment and the drive required for a succesful and valuable usage of the same. I would love to hear your personal experiences, your successes and pitfall ... the tears and the trails. I would like to learn from your experiences..... I hope this drive is successful.......I would really appreciate your advice and words of caution while I take this forward. Thanks and Regards, Parinita

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Mails from Mr. Rajesh
by asim kumar 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Dear all, I,ve been a passive member of this forum, still I read all the mails sent by other members. I have the feeling that the relationship we maintain is very much professional and at times personal also, but I,ve never seen the kind of language used by Mr. Rajesh. This forum is about exchanging views, news and experiences. There is no harm in asking for even small piece of information. The feeling of fraternity is the only thing that makes us asking for help from anybody on this forum. We dont maintain Mentor-Mentee relationship over here. I request the moderators to look into the matter and maintain the sanctity of the forum. Thanks and regards, Asim Kumar, Jain Group of Institutions. --------------------------------- Yahoo! India Matrimony: Find your partner now. Dear all, I,ve been a passive member of this forum, still I read all the mails sent by other members. I have the feeling that the relationship we maintain is very much professional and at times personal also, but I,ve never seen the kind of language used by Mr. Rajesh. This forum is about exchanging views, news and experiences. There is no harm in asking for even small piece of information. The feeling of fraternity is the only thing that makes us asking for help from anybody on this forum. We dont maintain Mentor-Mentee relationship over here. I request the moderators to look into the matter and maintain the sanctity of the forum. Thanks and regards, Asim Kumar, Jain Group of Institutions. http://yahoo.shaadi.com Yahoo! India Matrimony : Find your partner now.

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OA and the Royal Society
by Mailing List Manager 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Date: Thu, 8 Dec 2005 10:15:45 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun(a)mssrf.res.in> More on the FRS letter to the Royal Society Donald MacLeod, Royal Society attacked for 'negative' open access stance, The Guardian, December 7, 2005. A group of 46 distinguished scientists, including Nobel laureate James Watson, today strongly criticised the Royal Society, the UK's national academy of science, for its "negative" attitude to new online methods of publishing research. The row has erupted over so-called "open access" agreements, under which scientists agree to make their findings freely available on the internet as well as, or instead of, publishing them in academic journals. This is being strongly promoted by the UK's research councils, as well as bodies like the Wellcome Trust, as the most efficient way of disseminating scientific results from the research they fund but has been bitterly opposed by publishers and learned societies which produce their own journals. Last month the Royal Society, founded in 1660, called for caution in what it called "the biggest change in the way that knowledge is exchanged since the invention of the peer-reviewed scientific journal 340 years ago". The society warned that "the exchange of knowledge could be severely disrupted, and researchers and wider society will suffer the resulting consequences." This statement sparked a flurry of heated online exchanges between scientists around the world, including the elite membership of the Royal Society, and today culminated in an open letter signed by 46 of its fellows expressing disappointment with the society's attempt to delay implementation of the research councils' policy and accusing the society of putting its own interests above those of science. The signatories, including James Watson who discovered the structure of DNA, and Sir John Sulston, who headed the British end of the human genome project, state: "As working scientists who support open access to published research, we believe that the society should support Research Councils UK's (RCUK) proposal, rather than oppose it. "The proposed RCUK policy will ensure that the results of research funded by the research councils are made freely and rapidly available, maximising their utility not only to the scholarly community in the United Kingdom and around the world, but also to practitioners (including doctors and nurses) and to the British public whose taxes largely support the research. "In seeking to delay or even to block the proposed RCUK policy, the Royal Society appears to be putting the concerns of existing publishers (including the society itself) ahead of the needs of science. The position statement ignores considerable evidence demonstrating the viability of open access, instead warning ominously of 'disastrous' consequences for science publishing. We believe that these concerns are mistaken."

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Vacancy at Corporation Bank, Mangalore
by rupesh kumar 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Dear All, Corporation Bank has called for the posts of Librarians and Library Assistants for one of its branches in Mangalore for setting up a library and numismatic museum. Application form and details can be found at http://www.corpbank.com Regards, RUPESH KUMAR.A. DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE BANGALORE UNIVERSITY --------------------------------- Yahoo! Personals Let fate take it's course directly to your email. See who's waiting for you Yahoo! Personals Dear All, Corporation Bank has called for the posts of Librarians and Library Assistants for one of its branches in Mangalore for setting up a library and numismatic museum. Application form and details can be found at http://www.corpbank.com Regards, http://www.bub.ac.in/buLogo.jpg RUPESH KUMAR.A. DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE BANGALORE UNIVERSITY Yahoo! Personals Let fate take it's course directly to your email. See who's waiting for you http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=36106/*http://personals.yahoo.com Yahoo! Personals

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Google Services Guide
by Padmanabha Vyasamoorthy 09 Dec '05

09 Dec '05

Google Services Guide is a Blogspot-hosted a list of Google services with a summary. Good night -- this list is huge! ore than hundred items are listed -- many many you would not know. For instance try http://base.google.com The complete guide is available at: http://googleservicesguide.blogspot.com/ -- Dr P Vyasamoorthy, SENIORS (Society for Enriched Information of Relevance to Seniors), 30, Gruhalakshmi Colony, Secunderabad 500018 Phone 27846631

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