Dangers of Handing Over Copyright

According to the World Intellectual Property Organization copyright law exists 

“to encourage a dynamic culture, while returning value to creators so that they can lead a dignified economic existence, and to provide widespread, affordable access to content for the public.”

However, have you ever thought about what it means when instead of giving a publisher a licence to reproduce your work, you give them your copyright? Essentially you will not be able to reprint that piece in your collected works, or include any part of it in related works or put it on your website. You will not receive any fees should it be translated or adapted in any way. In fact to use your own work, you will have to ask the publishers permission and risk refusal! And this is when you will have done all the work and other academics will have carried out the refereeing process. So think about it before you sign the copyright form and at the very least, ask for permission to place your authors version on your institutional repository or website.

Free Resources

Free resources are generally thin on the ground so a timely article in Online by Barbie Keiser giving comprehensive coverage to a range of  free resources from Thomson Reuters . A section of the website is entitled Additional Free Resources and is broken down into Scholarly Literature, IP& Standards and Life Sciences. 

The website is worth looking at but two are definitely worth mentioning. Scholarly Literature gives you access to the master database of all the journal titles in Thomson Reuters scientific databases. Here you can recommend that a particular journal be included for indexing.

Science Watch (www.sciencewatch.com) provides access to all science metrics and analysis that track trends and performances in global research. Also Fast Breaking Papers, New Hot Papers, Emerging Research Fronts and Fast Movving Fronts

Full article Keiser, B.: Free Scientific Resources from Thomson Reuters, Online, July-August, 2011, pp.23-27.

European Research Budget hits record high

The European Union's Research Budget has hit a record high including a major increase in funding for blue-skies research. The latest round of annual funding from the European Commission's Seventh Framework Programme will see overall spending increase by more than  9% to €7 billion. Funding for the European Research Council which finances "frontier" research will increase by 23% to €1.6 billion.
Funding for Marie Curie Fellowships which researchers can take anywhere in the EU, will also rise by 17% to €900 million. The number of fellowships will increase from 7,000 to 10,000. The allocation to Marie Curie Action, which oversees the fellowships, will include €20 million for a pilot project to fund European Industrial Doctorates, intended to stimulate entrepreneurship and cooperation between universities, research institutions and companies.
The European Commission has ambitious plans to boost research funding by 46% over the next framework programme which begins in 2014. The 2014-2020 package will be worth €80 billion.

Growth in third level education

Professor Patrick Cunningham, the chief science advisor to the Goverment addressed the IRCHSS and IRCSET Postdoctoral Symposium at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin in July, 2011. He spoke about  how, over thirty years ago,  the sector had responded to the need  to create a more educated workforce to attract foreign companies and investment to Ireland.

"Of the OECD countries as a whole, those entering the workforce with third-level education have been increasing at a half per cent per year. So over 30 years it has come up about 15%. In Ireland, it has come up at a 60% faster rate. We started thirty years ago well below the OECD avergage and now, we're well above it".

However,in the 1990s, it was realised that this was not enough and the Goverment promised to create 1,000 Ph.Ds. every year. 

He continued "We're probably about average now - we have six per 1,000 of our workforce with qualifications at Ph.D. level. Some countries have a great deal more and those that we compete best against are actually moving faster than we are. Nevertheless, if we look back over the last ten years, there is a lot to be content about. We had grownth in the celtic tiger years of about 7% a year in GDP- extraordinary by Western European Standards- but in fact the investment in R&D both business and public, has been increasing by 14% twice that rate".

In 2011 IRCHSS and IRCSET will grant €10 million in awards to Irish researchers. 

Google Funds Research Institute

Google is to open a research institute in Germany . It is to invest $6.3 million dollars in the partnership with Humboldt University in Berlin and several other German Research Institutes. The Institute for Internet and Society which is expected to open in October, 2011 will study issues relating to the world wide web and its impact on users as well as regulation and copyright.

New Journal, All-New Rules

(Article in the Times Higher Education by Paul Jump)

3 major biomedical funders UK Wellcome Trust, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US and the Max Planck Society are proposing to launch their own as yet untitled open access  journal next summer.  The funders have confirmed that the journal will span the Life Sciences, will be open to all researchers and will be edited by senior practising scientists without interference from the funders.

The impetus has come from a belief that the process of peer review needs to be owned by professional scientists. They cite what they term as the level of “nitpicking” that is going on unchecked because editors do not have the scientific knowledge to know when to call a halt.

The reviewers for the new journal (who may be paid) will commit to completing the review process in 3 to 4 weeks. The point was also made that journal editors are worried about the impact of their journal and will favour “ paradigm shifting discoveries “over solid scientific work.   Dr. Tijan (President of the Howard Hughes Institute said “but very often what happens in complex biological systems is the first few papers are wrong. Interest wanes..when in fact the best science is done two years down the line.”

 While there is opposition to the idea on the grounds that a journal needs professional editors,and that it would be better to make existing journals open access ,the last word goes to Dr. Tijan

 “Cost is not the biggest thing for us. We are more interested in the quality of the published papers and how to make the editing process efficient and rapid”.

Read the entire article in Times Higher Education 7-13, July, 2011, available online http://0-www.lexisnexis.com.ditlib.dit.ie/uk/nexis/search/homesubmitForm.do

Keeping versions of files

A Versions Toolkit has been produced by the Versions project in the UK. This is a guide for Researchers and Repository Staff in the context of Open Access. It offers advice on how to manage and organise your information in a digital world. You can download the full version of the toolkit here. However, their top 5 hints with regards to the different versions of your files are

1. Consider and plan how you will store and name your personal versions of files.
2.  Keep permanently your own Author-Created Submitted Versions and Final Author-Created Accepted Versions of your research publications.
3. Add the date of completion of manuscript to the first page of any versions you create, especially the milestone versions.
4. Consider carefully how you will disseminate your work before signing any agreeements with the publishers and keep a copy of all signed agreements.
5. Deposit your work in an open access repository and think of your readers by guiding them to your latest and published versions 

Journal Articles
In this context it is useful to be aware of the most popular versions of a journal article which are generally termed as the Pre-Print, the Authors Final Version,the  Published Version.
The Pre-Print is the pre-refereed version. This is the version that will be submitted to a Publisher to go through a peer review process.
The Authors Final Version is the version the author receives back for proof reading after the article has been through the peer review process and all changes have been made. While it may have the publishers name on it, there will be no volume or issue information and  it may have "draft" or "submitted"imprinted on it . In most cases, this is the version you can put up on an open access repository
The Publishers PDF...this is the article as published, it will have the publishers branding on it and full citation information. In most cases you are not permitted to upload this version to an open access repository.