Scholarly Communication at Texas A&M

ENABLING OPEN SCHOLARSHIP (EOS), a new organization for senior management in universities and research institutions, has been
launched today.

The context in which EOS has been established is that of increasing interest from governments, funders and the research community itself
in opening up the way research is carried out and communicated. This interest is complemented by new research practices and processes that can work effectively only in an open, collaborative environment. (more…)

Yesterday, five universities (Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and University of California at Berkeley) announced they had formed a compact for open-access publishing equity. The universities have agreed to underwrite “reasonable” publication charges so that authors may publish in fee-based open access journals.

The goal is to transform how universities pay for scholarship by providing a viable alternative to subscription-access models of publishing, and to make research freely accessible.

Texas A&M is a member of SCOAP³ - Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics, a consortium exploring open access alternative for publishing in high energy physics journals.

On a related note, the oacompact.org site links to an OA journal funds page maintained at Simmons College.  It lists Texas A&M as an institution that provides a fund to pay open access journal publishing fees. I have not been able to verify this fund exists. Does TAMU have such a fund? Should TAMU have such a fund?

NBOL-19: An Online Review of New Books on English and American Literature of the Nineteenth Century  is “here to revolutionize academic reviewing” — by posting reviews of new books on English and American literature of the nineteenth century within ninety days of their publication, by inviting authors to respond to each review within thirty days of its submission, and by making use of tools available in an online format such as tagging and commenting.

The National Humanities Alliance (NHA) began in 2006 to explore issues related to scholarly journal publishing in humanities and social science (HSS) associations. Eight prominent scholarly societies agreed to participate in a study with financial assistance from the Mellon Foundation.  The study analyzed data provided by the association for eight journals, considered the flagship journals in anthropology, sociology, economics,  modern languages, history, religion, politics and statistics. The new report, “The Future of Scholarly Journals Publishing Among Social Science and Humanities Associations” by Mary Waltham was recently released.

Some interesting details from the report: (more…)

The Office of the Provost, The Texas A&M University Libraries, The Texas A&M University Press, and the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research sponsored “The Changing Landscape of Scholarly Communication in the Digital Age,” a symposium on Scholarly Communication in February 2009. (more…)