The big news lately is that Elsevier has acquired @SSRN (the Social Science Research Network), the world’s biggest repository for the social sciences and humanities (source: @d_mainwaring). As one might expect, there were some responses.
- @Techdirt looks at Elsevier’s actions in the past, and sees cause for concern.
- LSE looks at the implications but points out that SSRN has been in private hands for over 20 years already (source: @LSEImpactBlog).
- Elsevier says it will not use SSRN to force academics to sign up for proprietary services such as Mendeley (source: @timeshighered).
- Savage Minds points out that Elsevier doesn’t have to start charging SSRN users – the data they’ll gain access to is valuable on its own.
- And Mike Taylor over at SV-POW responds with a plea for funders to fund infrastructure as well as research (source: @RickyPo).
Whatever happens, this is definitely worth keeping an eye on over the next few months.
The IDPF and the W3C have announced plans to join forces “to more quickly advance publishing technologies on the Open Web Platform.” The internet had some thoughts on that:
- Peter Brantley is excited about a new era of collaboration.
- Baldur Bjarnason has some concerns about implementation, but sees hope in the community incubation model.
- Dave Cramer sees the merger as better than the status quo at least, and wants to give it a chance.
The “Green Light for Open Access Conference” took place in Amsterdam last week. @LIBEReurope has a recap here, and you can see the program and links to presentations at the Pasteur40A website, and lots of follow-up Tweets on their Twitter page.
ScienceOpen.com is running a series of interviews in which they discuss the background, current state, and further development of Open Science with a number of folks currently in the trenches from a wide range of disciplines and locations. The aggregate result is a terrific overview of the movement and a wide range of educated opinions. Definitely worth reading.
Source: @Protohedgehog
In “Economic Thoughts about Gold Open Access“, an economist ruminates on whether flipping to gold open access would be financially viable. Spoiler alert: It would! But go read the post anyway, and the very interesting discussion in the comments.
Source: @MikeTaylor
As you may recall, around this time last year we reported on a Max Planck Society white paper showing that flipping would be cost-neutral, or even cheaper. Björn Brembs asks why we haven’t done that yet. If there is an answer to this question, I suspect it involves the phrase “herding cats”.
Source: @ForgottenGenius, @brembs
The OPEN Government Data Act, introduced in the US House of Representatives, will make open government data the default, in keeping with a 2013 executive order [pdf] issued by President Obama. A companion bill will be introduced in the Senate. You can also read section summaries [pdf].
Transport for London (@TfL) has opened its data feed to developers. Here’s the article, and here’s a link to the data. Can’t wait to see what they come up with!
For those of us whose attention has been elsewhere for the past few months, Tom Steinberg wrote a critique of the open data movement’s progress, combined with a nice state of play.