Scholarly Communication at Texas A&M

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) uses taxpayer dollars to produce excellent reports on public policy issues ranging from foreign affairs, to agriculture, to health care. These reports are made accessible to Members of Congress and their staff through an internal system, and are never released to the public directly from the Congressional Research Service.  Bills to provide free online public access to CRS Reports have been introduced in the House (H.R. 3762) and the Senate (S. Res. 118). The House bill is currently pending before the Committee on House Administration; the Senate bill is awaiting action by the Senate Committee on Rules and Administration. (more…)

IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional society, and a not-for-profit organization, will now publish the IBM Journal of Research and Development. Is this news cause for concern or celebration?  It’s not clear whether the IBM journal will adopt IEEE’s policy on author self-archiving. (more…)

This documentary traces the rise of hip-hop from the urban streets of New York to its current status as a multibillion-dollar industry. For more than thirty years, innovative hip-hop performers and producers have been re-using portions of previously recorded music in new, otherwise original compositions. When lawyers and record companies got involved, what was once referred to as a “borrowed melody” became a “copyright infringement.” (more…)

The National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) has passed an Open Access policy that
requires that all peer-reviewed research published by its scientists and staff in scientific journals be made publicly available online through its institutional repository. The new policy has been put in place by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), the governing body that manages NCAR. A national lab, NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation. It has conducted research into the atmospheric sciences since 1960. (more…)

Welcome to Open Access Week 2009, from SPARC from Jennifer McLennan on Vimeo.