NEEO network extends its reach

UCD is a member of the NEEO consortium of top economics faculty in Europe. The group is now extending its reach and recently Columbia joined the group- read about that in this blog entry

Comparative study says benefits of OA outweigh costs

From Peter Suber's OA blog:
For Denmark, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands free access to scholarly materials could offer significant benefits not only to research and higher education but also to society as a whole. This has been calculated by Australian economist Professor John Houghton in studies which have taken place in these three countries on the costs and benefits of scholarly communication. He has now summarised these findings in a report commissioned by Knowledge Exchange, which is a partnership of the IT bodies from Denmark (DEFF), the United Kingdom (JISC), the Netherlands (SURFfoundation) and Germany (DFG). ...

No OA impact advantage seen in ophthalmology

Peter Suber blog reports on V.C. Lansingh and M.J. Carter, Does Open Access in Ophthalmology Affect How Articles are Subsequently Cited in Research? Ophthalmology, June 20, 2009.

CONCLUSIONS: Unlike other fields of science, open access thus far has not affected how ophthalmology articles are cited in the literature.

The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind

Engaging half hour video from James Boyle, professor of law and co-founder of the Centre for the Study of the Public Domain at Duke University and author of The Public Domain: enclosing the commons of the mind.

Is the public domain as vital to knowledge, innovation and culture as the realm of material protected by intellectual property rights? James Boyle thinks so and visits the RSA to call for a new movement to preserve it. If we continue to enclose the commons of the mind, Boyle argues, we will all be the poorer.

Delivered March 2009 at the RSA

PubMed On Tap is an application for your iPhone or iPod Touch that lets you search PubMed while on the go

£1.79 for full version. Free Lite version has full functionality but will only return 5 records per search

UCL embraces open access with institution-wide mandate

University College London has become the latest British institution to introduce a mandatory open-access repository for its scholars' work in what is a growing international trend.

A new Centre for research and development in open access at the University of Nottingham

The way that research is communicated around the world is changing rapidly, opening access for more people to more research than has been available before. This brings change, challenges and exciting opportunities for authors, investigators and others in the research process.
The SHERPA team at the University of Nottingham are pleased to announce the formation of a new research centre -- the Centre for Research Communications (CRC). This will be based at the University and will help to support and inform these changes and new ideas. The CRC will house the portfolio of open access projects, services and initiatives currently undertaken by the University.
These include the home of the SHERPA partnership; the open access services RoMEO, Juliet and OpenDOAR; the Repositories Support Project (RSP), and the University contribution to the European and international projects DRIVER, Dart-Europe and NECOBELAC. Project and service funders include JISC, the European Commission, the Wellcome Trust and SPARCEurope. The CRC will also act as a focus for new work in the area both within the University and nationally.