ISSUES IN SCHOLARLY COMMUNICATION
A NEWSLETTER FOR THE UIUC COMMUNITY
Issue 1/05
January 10, 2005
Paula Kaufman, University Librarian, Editor
CORRECTION: CIA RECORDS NOT REMOVED FROM NATIONAL ARCHIVES
A story in the previous issue of Secrecy News, and reported in this Newsletter, was mistakenly titled "CIA Removes Records From National Archives" (SN, 12/16/04).
In fact, however, no CIA records have been physically removed from the National Archives. While various records in open collections at the Archives have been removed from public access by CIA reviewers, as reported, those records remain in the custody of the National Archives.
NARA PROBES CIA LOSS OF HISTORICAL BUDGET RECORDS
The National Archives and Records Administration is asking the Central Intelligence Agency to explain its recent statement to a federal judge that it cannot locate copies of the classified annexes to the intelligence authorization acts for fiscal years 1947 through 1970, as noted earlier (SN, 12/10/04). A newly obtained letter from NARA to the CIA states: "It is our understanding that a record set of those annexes should be preserved among the permanent appropriations and budget files of the CIA," wrote Howard P. Lowell, director of modern records programs at the National Archives.
TUhttp://www.fas.org/sgp/news/2004/11/nara112304.pdfUT
PUBLISH OR BE DAMNED
Scientific publishing is undergoing a revolution, with scientists and policy makers fed up that valuable research is being locked away in expensive subscription-only journals. Now, writers of the material are launching their own competing journals and giving away the results for free. But not everyone is happy. In Publish or be Damned, Richard Black examines each side of the debate and assesses the likely consequences for science - BBC Radio 4 (12/21/2004 3:10:53 AM) Peter Scott’s Library Blog 12/21/04 TUhttp://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/publishorbedamned.shtmlUT
TVIDEO ORGANIZES PAPER DOCUMENTS
With the notion of the paperless office fading into history, researchers from the University of Washington are working to more closely integrate the paper world – still on the rise – with the world of electronic data. The researchers’ system uses a computer and overhead video camera to track physical documents on a desk and automatically link them to appropriate electronic documents. The researchers have constructed a pair of prototypes that track paper documents and sort photos without the use of special tags, paper, or marks. The paper-tracking system allows users to pinpoint the location of a given document within a stack of documents on the desktop. Users can find a document using keywords, document appearance, or by how recently a paper was moved. The photo-sorting application allows users to sort digital photographs using printouts of the photos. T TJanuary 2, 2005 TTUhttp://www.technologyreview.com/articles/05/01/ap/ap_010205.asp?trk=nlUTT
OPEN ACCESS ROUNDUP
In 2004 we saw important new OA policies from universities, publishers,
foundations, and governments.
At the same time, the volume of OA literature grew significantly, as did support
for OA among researchers, policy-makers, and the public.
Peter Suber
provides a review of open access progress in 2004.
SPARC Open Access Newsletter, issue #81
January 2, 2005
TUhttp://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/01-02-05.htmUT
TSCIENTIFIC
AMERICAN EDITORS LAUNCH MIND MAGAZINE
T
TThe
editors of Scientific American have launched Scientific American MIND, a
new magazine that explores the fascinating and often mysterious workings of the
brain, thoughts and feelings. The magazine is launching as a quarterly,
with plans to increase to a bimonthly frequency in 2006. "Scientific American
MIND is a response to the growing appetite for information about how the mind
works—sparked in recent years by numerous advances in psychology and
neuroscience," said Gretchen Teichgraeber, CEO and President of Scientific
American. "The launch follows a highly successful test issue produced earlier
this year—as well as the success of the magazine in overseas markets." The
magazine will have a cover price of $5.95 and a subscription price of $19.95.
The initial circulation of 120,000 will be driven primarily by newsstand sales.
Teichgraeber said that the magazine was expected to attract a higher percentage
of female readers than Scientific American, its parent publication. The cover
story of the debut issue explores "The Samaritan Paradox"—the cultural and
genetic reasons why humans in certain circumstances can display far greater
altruism than others in the animal kingdom. Additional stories include
"Stressed-Out Memories," about the effects of stress on memory; "The Forgotten
Brain Emerges," about the growing recognition of the importance of the brain's
glial cells in the thinking process; and "Informing the ADHD Debate," about how
to recognize and respond to attention deficit hyperactivity disorder in
children. The Write News
12/30/04
TTUhttp://www.writenews.comUTT
GUEDON AND HARNAD MIX IT UP
Stevan Harnad has written a critique of The "Green" and "Gold" Roads to Open Access: The Case for Mixing and Matching,” Jean-Claude Guédon, Serials Review 30(4) 2004
TUhttp://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00987913UT entitled: “Fast-Forward on the Green Road to Open Access: The Case Against Mixing Up Green and Gold.” Its full text is at: TUhttp://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/mixcrit.htmUT Here is a summary from the Introduction to Harnad’s critique: Open Access (OA) means: free online access to all peer-reviewed journal articles.
Jean-Claude Guedon (J-CG) argues against the efficacy of author self-archiving of peer-reviewed journal articles—the "Green" road to OA—on the grounds (1) that far too few authors self-archive, (2) that self-archiving can only generate incomplete and inconvenient access, and (3) that maximizing access and impact is the wrong reason for seeking OA (and only favors elite authors). J-CG suggests instead that the right reason for seeking OA is so as to reform the journal publishing system by converting it to OA ("Gold") publishing (in which the online version of all articles is free to all users). He proposes converting to Gold by "mixing and matching" Green and Gold as follows: First, self-archive dissertations (not published, peer-reviewed journal articles). Second, identify and tag how those dissertations have been evaluated and reviewed. Third, self-archive unrefereed preprints (not published, peer-reviewed journal articles). Fourth, develop new mechanisms for evaluating and reviewing those unrefereed preprints, at multiple levels. The result will be OA Publishing (Gold). I reply that this is not mixing and matching but merely imagining: a rather vague conjecture about how to convert to 100% Gold, involving no real Green at all along the way, because Green is the self-archiving of published, peer-reviewed articles, not just dissertations and preprints. I argue that rather than yet another 10 years of speculation what is actually needed (and imminent) is for OA self-archiving to be mandated by research funders and institutions so that the self-archiving of published, peer-reviewed journal articles (Green) can be fast-forwarded to 100% OA. The direct purpose of OA is to maximize research access and impact, not to reform journal publishing; and OA's direct benefits are not just for elite authors but for all researchers, for their institutions, for their funders, for the tax-payers who fund their funders, and for the progress and productivity of research itself. There is a complementarity between the Green and Gold strategies for reaching 100% OA today, just as there is a complementarity between access to the OA and non-OA versions of the same non-OA articles today. Whether 100% Green OA will or will not eventually lead to 100% Gold, however, is a hypothetical question that is best deferred until we have first reached 100% OA, which is a direct, practical, reachable and far more urgent immediate goal—and the optimal, inevitable and natural outcome for research in the PostGutenberg Galaxy. TUhttp://www.ecs.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Temp/mixcrit.htmUT
Stevan Harnad BOAI Forum TUboai-forum@ecs.soton.ac.ukUT 12/29/04
AMERICAN SCIENTIST OPEN ACCESS FORUM:
A complete Hypermail archive of the ongoing discussion of providing open access to the peer-reviewed research literature online (1998-2004) is available at: TUhttp://www.cogsci.soton.ac.uk/~harnad/Hypermail/Amsci/index.htmlUT To join or leave the Forum or change your subscription address: TUhttp://amsci-forum.amsci.org/archives/American-Scientist-Open-Access-Forum.htmlUT Post discussion to: TUamerican-scientist-open-access-forum@amsci.orgUT BOAI Forum TUboai-forum@ecs.soton.ac.ukUT 12/29/04
MAPPING THE BLOGOSPHERE
In the last year the number of Internet users who read blogs has risen 58%, according to a report by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Not surprisingly, most blog creators (70%) have broadband connections at home and have been online for six years or more (82%). Fifty-seven percent are male and 39% have college or graduate degrees.
Forty-two percent live in households earning more than $50,000. Like bloggers, blog readers are more likely to be young, male, well-educated Internet veterans, but in recent months there's been a growth in readership among women, minorities, users between the ages of 30 and 49, and those with dialup connections. Still, the blogosphere represents a fairly small percentage of people: Of the 120 million Internet users in the U.S., only 38% said they had a pretty good idea of what a blog was, while 62% professed ignorance of this latest online phenomenon. (Pew Internet & American Life Project 2 Jan 2005) NewsScan Daily, 3 January 2005
TUhttp://www.pewinternet.org/PPF/r/144/report_display.aspUT
DEBATING NIH’S PLAN
TLila Guterman, TUCritics and Proponents Debate NIH's Plan to Free Access to Scientific MaterialsUTTT, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 7, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: 'Proponents and critics of open access have had a lot to talk about these days as they anxiously await the U.S. government's final plan to make large swaths of scientific literature freely available....Dr. Zerhouni characterized the comments, a fraction of which the agency has posted on its Web site, as "overwhelmingly supportive." Indeed, Richard K. Johnson, director of the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, or Sparc, called the draft plan "a brilliant compromise."...One scientific-society executive who requested anonymity said that many publishers object to any new government intrusion into the process. They fear that other agencies that finance research will adopt the NIH approach and go even further. "It ain't going to stop with six months," the executive said. The second element of compromise is that the NIH will only request, not require, that researchers send them copies of their papers. Dr. Zerhouni told The Chronicle that that provision was included so that members of scientific societies who might be hurt by the public archive could decline to participate. Patricia S. Schroeder, a former congresswoman who is president of the Association of American Publishers, doubts the efficacy of that step. "The NIH is this two-ton gorilla," she said, because it is the country's largest provider of research grants. "You don't dare not comply with it, really."' Open Access News 1/3/05 TUhttp://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i18/18a02801.htmUTTT
DO GOOGLE’S NEW DEALS REALIZE V. BUSH’S VISION?
TUGoogle's New Deals Promise to Realize a 60-Year-Old VisionUT, Chronicle of Higher Education, January 7, 2005 (accessible only to subscribers). An unsigned essay. On how Google will realize the vision of Vannevar Bush for associative indexing. Excerpt: 'To Mr. Bush, the challenge was not storage. Books already did that job marvelously. The looming crisis, according to Mr. Bush, was a breakdown in the system for indexing and retrieving ideas...."Mendel's concept of the laws of genetics was lost to the world for a generation because his publication did not reach the few who were capable of grasping and extending it," Mr. Bush wrote. "And this sort of catastrophe is undoubtedly being repeated all about us, as truly significant attainments become lost in the mass of the inconsequential."...What was needed, according to Mr. Bush, was a new kind of indexing to create an information revolution. He called it "associative indexing"—"the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. ... The process of tying two items together is the important thing."...So the Google deals are revolutionary....With its focus on providing simple ways for users to snatch useful information out of billions of pages of data, Google could make something like Mr. Bush's vision of "associative indexing" a reality....Andries van Dam, a computer-science professor at Brown University who was involved in the early work on hypertext systems in the 1960s, says that search engines are already more sophisticated than Mr. Bush envisioned because he imagined that associative indexing would need to be done by hand, as researchers noticed connections among concepts.' Open Access News 1/3/05 TUhttp://chronicle.com/prm/weekly/v51/i18/18a03801.htmUT
COPYRIGHT LEVY ATTACHED TO GERMAN PC SALES
A German court has ordered one of the country's largest PC makers to pay a levy for each new computer sold, to compensate copyright holders for royalties lost to copying. Germany has long charged such levies on devices used for copying content, including blank audio and video cassettes. The VG Wort rights society, which represents copyright holders in Germany, had asked the court to charge Fujitsu Siemens Computers 30 euros (US$41) per computer; the court decided on a levy of 12 euros. VG Wort said it will work to make all PC vendors in Germany subject to the same levy. Bernd Bischoff, CEO of Fujitsu Siemens, said the levy is "a de facto tax on PCs," which will tend to decrease sales. Officials from Fujitsu Siemens said they will consider appealing the decision and have asked the German government to review the copyright levies as they apply to digital technologies. ITWorld, 24 December 2004 Edupage, January 03, 2005
TUhttp://www.itworld.com/Man/2681/041224germanlevy/UT
NEW UPDATING MODE
From Larry Lessig: So here's something cool that I'm happy to be able to announce. Five years ago, I published TUCodeUT. It's time for an update. But rather than update in the old fashioned way, TUBasic BooksUT has agreed to the following: Beginning in February, we'll be posting Version 1 of Code to a Wiki. "Chapter Captains" will then supervise updates and corrections. Depending upon the progress, sometime near June, I will take the product and edit and rewrite it to produce Code, v2. The Wiki will stay live forever (under a TUCreative CommonsUT license). The edited book will be published in the fall. I have donated my advance for Code, v2 to TUCreative CommonsUT. All royalties beyond the advance will be donated as well. At this point, we're collecting "Chapter Captain" (CCs, of course) volunteers. CCs should be expert in the subject of the chapter, and willing to work through the Wiki to produce an updated chapter. (Here's the TUtable of contentsUT.) My aim is not to write a new book; my aim is to correct and update the existing book. But I'm eager for advice and expert direction. If you're interested in volunteering, email me at TUthis addressUT. I am grateful to Basic Books to allow me to try this experiment. I worked very hard five years ago to learn enough to write Code. I'm extremely eager for the book to gain from the collective wisdom of at least part of the Net. No one can know whether this will work. But if if does, it could be very interesting. TUhttp://www.lessig.org/blog/UT
PUT-DOWNS SAVED FOR POSTERITY
The Dictionary of National Biography casts its sharp judgment on the
recently dead in the first issue of online supplement. Until now the DNB, 120
years old and the standard scholarly work on influential figures dating back to
2000 BC, has taken up to 10 years to publish its close scrutinies. The first
re-edited version of its 60-volume print edition was published in the autumn.
Its entries still take three years to research, write and edit. But its new
speed comes from an online subscription edition which issues its first quarterly
supplements today covering 195 eminent deaths in 2001. The Guardian
1/4/04
Read tidbits from the DNB at
TUhttp://books.guardian.co.uk/news/articles/0,6109,1382879,00.htmlUT
TOP STORIES
Information Today looks back at 2004 and ahead to 2004:
· Open Access initiatives exploded. We posted eight NewsBreaks over the year that covered the major developments and the controversies concerning scholarly publishing and open access. There were also several conference forums on the issues, plus columns, features, and commentaries in TInformation Today,T including Richard Poynder’s two-part series on the OA movement in the TUOctoberUT and TUNovemberUT issues, which included his widely cited interview with OA proponent Stevan Harnad.
Information Today 1/3/05 TUhttp://www.infotoday.com/newsbreaks/nb050103-1.shtmlUT
MORE CRYSTAL BALL GAZING
John Blossom, principal of Shore Communications, has published his commentary: “Crystal Ball Redux: Looking Back on Shore’s 2004 Forecast—and Peeking at 2005.” Shore’s theme for 2004 was “The Walls Come Tumbling Down,” which, the company says, “seems to have captured the wide array of changes that enveloped content and technology providers in 2004 rather well.” Blossom and his team of analysts promise a new round of prognostications in January. Information Today 1/3/05 TUhttp://www.shore.com/commentary/newsanal/items/2004/2004127review.htmlUT
MUSICAL DETECTIVE SALVAGES HISTORY
Michael Feinstein, an internationally known recording artist and expert on the
1920-1950 "golden era" of American song, is a man with a mission—he scavenges
landfills, garage sales and auctions for original music scores, recordings and
sheet music in the hope of preserving some of America's musical heritage before
it's too late. During the 30 years he's been collecting, Feinstein has amassed
more than 30,000 recordings, plus posters, sheet music and 16-inch lacquer radio
disks from the 1930s, much of which he's sent on to the Library of Congress for
archiving. He's also hired a staff to digitally transfer older recordings from
deteriorating 78 rpms, which he then ships to various archives. "There are a
handful of people doing this kind of work today, and Michael is the poster boy
for the movement. More than most, he put the issue of preservation on the map,"
says Timothy Kittleson, head of the UCLA Film and Television Archive. And while
studios today might think twice before consigning film scores and music
manuscripts to the landfill, as MGM did in the 1970s, convincing them to
digitize those assets for posterity is still a challenge, says Feinstein, who
hopes that two new national archives opening soon in Virginia and California
might step up to the plate. Both have received funding from the Packard
Humanities Institute to offer new repositories for vintage American pop songs
and film. (Los Angeles Times/Fortwayne.com 25 Dec 2004) ShelfLife, No. 188
(January 6, 2005)
<TUhttp://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/news/nation/10497533.htmUT>
BRITISH LIBRARY PRESERVES FAMOUS VOICES FROM THE PAST
Archivists at the British Library are digitizing countless rare and valuable
recordings of famous historical figures, such as Joseph Stalin, Vladimir Lenin,
Mahatma Gandhi and the Aga Khan III. The recordings are currently stored on
discs and wax cylinders, but by transferring them to CD format the BL will make
the audio collection available to a global audience. "The sound recordings that
we hold at the British Library aren't just of British interest. We have one of
the largest collections in the world and in particular one of the widest
collections in the world. We keep not only commercial discs, we have
international music from all areas of the world, marvelous collections from
Asia, we have some speech recordings also of international importance though
naturally there we tend to focus on the English language," says BL project
director Richard Fairman. The BL currently has about two dozen CDs available and
next year plans to produce a disc of speeches by Albert Einstein, timed to
coincide with his anniversary next year. (Channel NewsAsia 22 Dec 2004)
ShelfLife, No. 188 (January 6, 2005)
<TUhttp://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/europe/view/123508/1/.htmlUT>
TALKING SEARCH ENGINE
Scottish speech technology firm CEC Systems has launched Speegle, a search
engine that not only delivers results but reads them to you. Speegle users can
select one of three voices to read the results or to summarize news stories from
sources such as Reuters or the BBC. "It is still a bit robotic and can make a
few mistakes, but we are never going to have completely natural sounding voices
and it is not bad," says Speegle founder Gordon Renton. "The system is ideal for
people with blurred vision or for those that just want to search for something
in the background while they do something else. We are not saying that it will
be suitable for totally blind people, although the Royal National Institute of
the Blind is looking at the technology." And while most speech-delivery sites
are designed for broadband access because of the large files involved, Speegle's
compression technology enables people with only a dialup connection to use it as
well. (BBC
News 21 Dec 2004) ShelfLife, No. 188 (January 6, 2005)
<TUhttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4079005.stmUT>
INVENTIONS AND DISCOVERIES
Margaret Atwood "has invented a prototype remote autographing device that has
the potential to revolutionize book signings." Still in development, the idea is
that there is a screen "where the author can see and speak to the book reader in
real-time, and a tablet on which the author will write the inscription. The
second unit will be with the book reader, and will also include a screen to
communicate with the author in real-time, and will have a flat book holder as
well as an electronic arm and pen that will scrawl out the autograph. "The
system will allow the inscription to be edited or spell-checked before being
committed to paper and the quality of the signature should be identical to one
done in person, Atwood says. The book reader will also be able to keep a record
of the on-screen interaction with the author for posterity." Globe and Mail
1/6/05 Publishers Lunch 1/6/05
TUhttp://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20050106/ATWOOD06/TPEntertainment/TopStoriesUT
AAP: TROUBLING DECLINE FOR UNIVERSITY PRESS SALES IN OCTOBER
The latest figures show that 2004 was indeed a challenging year for university presses. According to the Association of American Publishers (AAP), sales dipped in a number of categories in October of 2004, including what AAP officials called a "troubling" 50.3% ($10.1 million) loss in university press hardcover sales. The loss continues a steady decline in that category since summer, and puts 2004 sales 5.4% off 2003 sales. Sales in the university press paperback category also dipped a hefty 60.7% in October (sales totaled $17.8 million), part of a 9.4% decline in 2004. Sales in the professional and scholarly category lost a modest 6.3% in October, on sales of $61.0 million, with sales in that category up 2.7 percent for the year. Library Journal Academic News Wire: January 06, 2005
CORNELL U. TASK FORCE RELEASES ITS INTERNAL REPORT ON OPEN ACCESS
A task force convened by the Cornell University libraries has delivered to its administration a sober assessment of author-pays open access publishing: "Our task force has concluded that what appears at present to be the most viable route for sustaining open access to peer-reviewed scholarship, a model in which institutions pay for their faculty to publish in refereed OA journals, would not bring about cost savings for Cornell." In fact, given the number of articles published by Cornell faculty members, the library system could "see its expenditures rise significantly if the library used its current subscription funds to pay for author fees instead." Instead, the task force foresees both subscriptions and open access publishing coexisting for the foreseeable future. While acknowledging that the subscription model has been "abused by some publishing interests," the task force believes that "subscription can still serve as an equitable model for disseminating scholarship...particularly when administered by scholarly societies, university presses, and academic libraries." The task force was convened by associate university librarian Ross Atkinson and led by John Saylor, director of the Engineering and Computer Science Library. The task force, which plumbed a wide array of sources, met weekly from January 2004 through June, and delivered its report and recommendations in October. Saylor told the LJ Academic Newswire that Cornell decided to release the internal report for public consumption to spur further discussion and hence greater understanding of OA. "It is important to note that this report doesn't necessarily reflect the views of the library administration, just the view of this committee." Saylor said. "I'm sure people will use it for their own purposes, quote or misquote from it, find things that support their particular view," he added. "But that's fine. As long as they cite it. This is what scholarly communication is all about." The library administration at Cornell has reviewed the report and asked the task force for further study. While far from a ringing endorsement, the report is also not bad news for OA supporters. It acknowledges the potential of open access to "democratize" access to information. Further, the report may help shift the debate to more practical issues. "Open access should not be regarded as an ultimate solution to the science serials crisis," the task force report stated, "but it can no doubt offer a pragmatic solution in specific cases." The task force acknowledged, however, that the scholarly publishing enterprise is simply too complex for a "blanket approach" to publishing issues. The "pragmatic approach" is to continue the Cornell's current "flexible, experimental" course of action. Library Journal Academic News Wire: January 04, 2005 To read the full report, visit: TUhttp://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/193UT.
OA BY THE NUMBERS: CORNELL CHARTS THE PROSPECTIVE OA COSTS FOR ARL LIBRARIES
A table prepared by Cornell Librarian Phil Davis and the Cornell University Libraries (CUL) task force on Open Access suggests that, at least among 113 ARL libraries, average article costs might be more expensive in an OA environment for most libraries. Extracted from existing ARL statistics and other data, such as from ISI Web of Science, the CUL team was able to calculate admittedly inexact estimates of what each of the 113 institutions paid per article. The task force estimated that 67 libraries would pay more under open access, 37 would pay about the same, and only nine would realize savings. The figures ranged from a high of $11,124 per article paid by Boston College (whose faculty published relatively few articles) to a low of $715 per article paid by the University of Washington (whose faculty published many articles). While CUL librarians hope other stakeholders will review and help adjust the figures, they also hope the study gets closer to further calculating costs of open access. The past year saw a wide range of figures regarding article costs from numerous sources. In its study, the Wellcome Trust estimated article costs to be about $1500 per article under an open access model. Meanwhile, during the UK STM inquiry oral evidence sessions, publishers put the costs of article production at £1250, closer to $2000 per article (see LJ Academic Newswire 4/1/04). To examine the data, visit Library Journal Academic News Wire: January 04, 2005 TUhttp://dspace.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/236UT.
The scholarly communications are also on line at TUhttp://door.library.uiuc.edu/administration/scholarly_communication/UT