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Experts Meeting on the UNESCO Open Access Strategy

sparc — 2011-11-29T13:01:50Z

Open Access Forum 2011

Lars Bjørnshauge attended the Experts Meeting on the UNESCO Open Access strategy held last week (22-23 November) in Paris.

The objective of the session in which he presented 'The Status of OA Journals' was to focus on understanding the contemporary status of Open Access journals and how UNESCO can promote OA journals.

Visit the online programme (http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/portals-and-platforms/goap/open-access-community/open-access-forum-2011/) to see all presentations available.

Sharing knowledge: EC-funded projects on scientific information in the digital age

sparc — 2011-11-20T22:09:20Z

Conclusions of a strategic workshop, Brussels, 14-15 February 2011 Rapporteur, Caroline Sutton

The report presents and analyses the discussions held at a workshop on scientific information in the digital age that took place in Brussels last February, where leaders from 18 EU-funded projects learned and shared their knowledge with the aim to identify key questions and issues that would serve as basis to formulating policy recommendations.

The main subjects dealt with in the report are scientific data, infrastructures, preservation, publications and awareness. Policy recommendations under each of these subjects are listed in the report.

Lars Bjørnshauge Appointed Interim Director SPARC Europe

sparc — 2011-10-24T12:55:28Z

Lars Bjørnshauge has been appointed to the role of Interim Director for SPARC Europe

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition)
http://www.arl.org/sparc

SPARC Europe
http://www.sparceurope.org

For immediate release
October 24, 2011

For information, contact:
Jennifer McLennan
(202) 296-2296 ext 121
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org

Lars Bjørnshauge Appointed Interim Director, SPARC Europe

(Washington, DC and The Hague) Lars Bjørnshauge has been appointed to the role of Interim Director for SPARC Europe, Bas Savenije, Chair of the SPARC Europe Board, announced today. Bjørnshauge, formerly Director of Libraries at Lund University in Sweden and a long-standing member of the SPARC Europe Board, assumed overall management of the 93-member library organization, effective October 19, 2011.

“SPARC Europe is very fortunate to have someone of Bjørnshauge’s caliber step into this leadership role,” Savenije said. He added, “Lars has the unique experience and expertise required to help the organization navigate the challenges facing libraries in the fast-moving scholarly communications realm.”

Bjørnshauge has over twenty years’ experience in the library community. Prior to his decade-long service as Director of Lund Libraries, he held management positions at the Technical Knowledge Center & Library of Denmark (DTV) in Lyngby, as well as serving as head of department at the Royal Danish School of Librarianship in Copenhagen.

Well known for championing innovative programs, particularly in the Open Access arena, Lars founded the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and led the team behind it until recently.

“Bjørnshauge's experience in directing large, international projects will serve him well in his new role with SPARC Europe,” said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC in North America. “His creativity and ability to innovate will be true assets to the organization.”

Bjørnshauge succeeds Drs. Astrid Van Wesenbeeck, who is taking on a new role as project manager with the National Library of the Netherlands. One of Astrid’s activities will be working as the first-ever Open Access Officer at the Dutch National Library (KB) in The Hague.

According to Heather Joseph, the coalition is currently completing a strategic review of its international efforts. Further news on SPARC global programs is expected in the coming weeks.

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SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) is a library membership organization that promotes expanded sharing of scholarship. SPARC believes that faster and wider sharing of outputs of the research process increases the impact of research, fuels the advancement of knowledge, and increases the return on research investments. SPARC is supported by a membership of over 800 academic and research libraries worldwide. SPARC is on the Web at http://www.arl.org/sparc

SPARC Europe is an alliance of European research libraries, library organizations and research institutions. We provide a voice for the community and the support and tools it needs in order to being about positive change to the system of scholarly communications. Our members represent over 100 of Europe’s leading academic and research institutions. Membership is open to national and academic libraries, library organizations and research institutions in the region. SPARC Europe is on the Web at http://www.sparceurope.org/

SPARC Europe Annual Meeting in Barcelona

sparc — 2011-08-31T16:46:47Z

Presentations are now available!

SPARC Europe held its annual meeting in Barcelona last June, during the first day of the 40th LIBER annual conference.

You can download the PowerPoint presentations below.

"Headlines SPARC Europe July 2010 –July 2011", Astrid van Wesenbeeck, Executive Director
"Open Access as a model to sustain academic book publishing" Eelco Ferwerda, Amsterdam University Press
"Update on the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) – with a look into the future" Lars Björnshauge, Lund University
Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB)? Astrid van Wesenbeeck, Eelco Ferwerda and Lars Björnshauge

We hope you find them of interest.

Sixth SPARC Europe Award

sparc — 2011-07-01T12:49:32Z

EIFL Open Access Program wins the sixth SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications

Barcelona, June 30th, LIBER 40th Annual Conference

The 2011 SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications goes to the EIFL Open Access Program for the awareness, advocacy and capacity building activities the organisation has carried out over the last three years and for its success in developing a large number of both repositories and open access journals run in the EIFL partner countries.

EIFL is an international not-for-profit organization enabling access to knowledge for education, learning, research and sustainable community development in more than 45 transition and developing countries including 17 countries in Europe as well as Africa and Asia. www.eifl.net

To date, EIFL-OA’s activities in Europe include:

The organization of 30 awareness raising, advocacy, and capacity building events from 2005-2011;
Support and mentoring of national and institutional OA advocacy campaigns targeted at research communities;
Funding for small grants to support open access publishing initiatives in Lithuania and Serbia; and
The coordination of the OpenAIRE Project, an EU funded project, in 10 European countries.

The results of this work can be seen in the development of 211 OA repositories and 2,344 OA journals in the EIFL partner countries in Europe and in the adoption of OA mandates by ten institutions in the EIFL partner countries in Europe, as well the implementation and consideration of national OA policies in Lithuania, Poland, and Slovenia.

Please visit http://www.eifl.net/openaccess for more information.

With the sixth Award SPARC Europe wishes to encourage the EIFL Open Access Program and its program manager Iryna Kuchma to continue the excellent work and to encourage other organizations to get inspired by EIFL's approach and activities. SPARC Europe believes the EIFL Open Access Program sets a perfect example for colleagues who aim to take up advocacy work and run activities to take the Open Access Movement further.

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) Europe initiated the Award in 2006 to recognize the work of an individual or group within Europe that has made significant advances in our understanding of the issues surrounding scholarly communications and/or in developing practical means to address problems within the current systems.

Previous winners are:

2006: Wellcome Trust http://www.wellcome.ac.uk
2007: SHERPA http://www.sherpa.ac.uk
2008: Mr Leo Waaijers
2009: Directory of Open Access Journals www.doaj.org
2010: CERN (particularly for their role in the SCOAP3 Project) www.cern.ch

The LERU Roadmap Towards Open Access

sparc — 2011-06-19T09:49:46Z

The presentation of the LERU Roadmap towards Open Access

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has issued a Roadmap towards Open Access that aims to assist LERU members and other universities who wish to put in place structures, policies and practices to facilitate Open Access and to negotiate the various steps along the Green and Gold routes to Open Access

SPARC Europe participated in the Working Group that created the roadmap.

The Roadmap was presented at June 17 in Brussels.

LERU Roadmap towards OA

http://www.leru.org/index.php/public/publications/

http://www.leru.org/index.php/public/calendar/launch-open-access/

LERU was founded in 2002 as an association of research-intensive universities sharing the values of high-quality teaching in an environment of internationally competitive research.

OpenAccess.se Statement approved by the Steering committee for OpenAccess.se on 23 May 2011

sparc — 2011-06-16T16:37:31Z

OpenAccess.se shows concern about Elsevier’s Open Access Policy

OpenAccess.se, the development programme to support Open Access in Sweden organised by the National Library of Sweden, approved a statement at its meeting on 23rd of May aimed at showing concern about Elsevier’s Open Access Policy.

Elsevier now requires specific agreements with universities or research funders if there is an open access mandate to deposit and disseminate articles in a specific open archive. These agreements may involve long embargo periods and restrict availability of research results.

"We strongly object to Elsevier’s new policy, which requires separate agreements for author’s rights, and we urge Elsevier to withdraw the new clause. We recommend that Swedish universities with open access mandates refrain from concluding separate agreements with Elsevier. Instead, this issue should be managed along with negotiations over national license agreements with Elsevier."

You can read the full statement here. For further information please contact Jan Hagerlid at OpenAccess.se.

SPARC Europe at Public Hearing on Access to and Preservation of Scientific Data

sparc — 2011-06-01T08:45:03Z

SPARC Europe presents Statement on Open Access at EC Public Hearing on Access to and Preservation of Scientific Data

On Monday May 30th the European Commission is holding a public hearing on Access to and Preservation of Scientific Information.

The hearing is in preparation for a planned communication on scientific communications in the digital age later this year.

SPARC Europe has been granted a 7 minute slot, along with 19 other organizations, to put forth concrete suggestions for the Commission's work in this area. The Commission will be looking to support and develop a number of projects related to preservation, scientific data and publications, as well as research infrastructures.

The Statement and some responses can be found here.

SPARC Europe response to EC Green Paper on a common strategic framework for EU

sparc — 2011-05-25T09:41:34Z

SPARC Europe has submitted a written response to the EC Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for future EU Research and Innovation funding.

The European Commission Green Paper proposes major changes to EU research and innovation funding to make participation easier, increase scientific and economic impact and provide better value for money.

SPARC Europe has prepared its submission together with LIBER.

As representatives of the community of research libraries across Europe, SPARC Europe and LIBER welcome the proposed Common Strategic Framework for research and innovation.

Read the submission here.

First Annual European Student Summit on Open Access

sparc — 2011-05-09T13:59:15Z

On May 20th & 21st, the Right to Research Coalition will host the first annual European Student Summit on Open Access at Humboldt University in Berlin.

The goal of this meeting is to bring together students from leading European and international student organizations to discuss how the issue of access to research affects each organization and to create a strategy for getting European students engaged in opening access to the results of research. SPARC Europe and SPARC North America will participate in this meeting.

http://www.righttoresearch.org/act/ESS2011.shtml

http://www.righttoresearch.org/

A new series of Webcasts for SPARC Europe members

sparc — 2011-05-06T11:43:48Z

At June 7th we organize the first edition of SPARC Europe Webcast Series for our members: OpenAIRE - what libraries need to know.

This first issue about OpenAIRE will take place at June 7th from 2 till 3PM (CEST). The webcast is open to all SPARC members (SPARC North America, SPARC Japan and SPARC Europe). We invite you to join; registration is free, but required. More information about this event can be found here

Public response on behalf of SPARC, SPARC Europe and COAR regarding publishers self-deposit policies

sparc — 2011-04-20T09:26:06Z

Public response on behalf of SPARC, SPARC Europe and COAR regarding publishers self-deposit policies.

Universities and research funders have a strong interest in ensuring that the results of the research that they support are made available for use by the widest possible audience, with minimal time delays. One of the main methods used to support this interest is the deposit of articles into online repositories.

Many publishers require that articles that appear in their journals be made available only after an embargo period, clearly stated in their journal policies.

We have recently noted that some journal publishers have sought to negotiate individually with universities and research institutes, seeking to increase embargo periods for authors depositing pre-prints of their articles into repositories, and requesting embargo periods that go beyond what is already stated in the publishers’ own policies.

We strongly urge institutions not to enter into individual agreements with publishers that supersede the existing policies of the publisher or any previous licensing agreements.

We also call on the publishers not to further hinder the deposit—and accessibility—of pre-prints with additional restrictions, regulations and policies. Proliferation of this practice will result in an environment that is confusing to navigate for end users, and increasingly difficult for individual institutions to effectively maintain.

We join JISC and others in speaking out against this and any other practice that result in a lengthening of delays for accessing articles in repositories, and urge other organizations concerned with ensuring timely access to scholarly articles to do the same.

COAR is the Confederation of Open Access Repositories, a not-for-profit association of repository initiatives that aims to enhance visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of Open Access digital repositories. (www.coar-repositories.org)

SPARC and SPARC Europe aim to promote an open scholarly communication system through advocacy and education, lobbying activities, the promotion of new models and partnerships with all interested stakeholders. (www.sparceurope.org / www.arl.org/sparc)

SPARC Europe Annual Meeting

sparc — 2011-03-17T17:19:58Z

SPARC Europe will hold its 2011 annual meeting on 29 June in Barcelona

SPARC Europe will hold its annual meeting on 29 June in Barcelona, during the first day of the 40th LIBER annual conference.

The first part of the programme will be led by Astrid van Wesenbeeck, SPARC Europe’s Executive Director, who will present some of SPARC Europe's 2010 – 2011 highlights followed by three speakers who have been invited to talk participants through some local as well as international developments in the Open Access movement.

Eelco Ferwerda, Amsterdam University Press, will talk about OAPEN and the OAPEN Library; Dr Victoria Tsoukala will be presenting the results of a survey on Open Access publishing in the humanities carried out by the National Documentation Centre/NHRF in Athens and Anita de Waard will close this first part of the programme with a talk on changing models of scholarly communication, as discussed at a workshop entitled 'Beyond the PDF' held last January at the University of California, San Diego.

The second part of the programme will consist of a panel discussion aimed at engaging participants in thought or reflection on the role repository managers and librarians can play in these innovative developments.

Please register at http://bibliotecnica.upc.edu/LIBER2011/content/registration. We hope to be welcoming you in Barcelona.

Call for Nominations

sparc — 2011-03-10T16:56:04Z

Call for Nominations for the sixth SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications

The Hague, The Netherlands
From today until 15 May 2011, SPARC Europe will be accepting nominations for the sixth SPARC Europe Award for Outstanding Achievements in Scholarly Communications and Open Access.

Nominations are open to individuals or teams preferably within Europe who have made significant contributions and discoveries in the field of scholarly communications but in particular to

researchers that help illuminate the scholarly communications landscape;
advocates that promote the development of new models of scholarly communications;
developers of new tools that aid an open scholarly communication system;
new and interesting initiatives, projects or products that guide and encourage the use of new scholarly communication models.

An international panel composed of members of the SPARC Europe Board of Directors will consider the nominations. Self-nominations will not be accepted. Preference will be given to activity within the past two years. Nominations should be submitted to Carmen Morlon not later than Sunday 15 May 2011.

The prize includes travel expenses to Barcelona for one person, an Award certificate and a bottle of champagne.

The award will be presented during the LIBER conference in Barcelona on Thursday 30 June 2011.

Astrid van Wesenbeeck, Executive Director of SPARC Europe said: "We are delighted to be launching this award which will recognise a talented individual, team or initiative, highlighting the inspiring figures that are behind the advances and progress we are making in the road to Open Access”.

Past winners include Wellcome Trust, SHERPA, Leo Waaijers, the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) and SCOAP3 (CERN). All have been recognised for their innovative work with initiatives and programmes supporting, developing and increasing awareness of Open Access.

A nomination should include:

Name of nominee
Project name / person name and contact details
Motivation, no longer than 200 words
Website information

For further information please contact us at the SPARC Europe Secretariat.

UNESCO Netherlands Expert Meeting on Open Access

sparc — 2011-03-10T10:10:07Z

A Global Perspective on Open Access, Amsterdam, 20 January 2011

SPARC Europe attended a UNESCO-NL expert meeting entitled "A Global Perspective on Open Access" held in Amsterdam last January, which aimed at presenting the views of the Global South on the role that Open Access can play in the development of global science. Read the report here.