Open Access 2010 at Purdue
Celebrated October 18-25, 2010, Purdue University Libraries hosted a series of events on campus to highlight some of Purdue’s efforts in open access, as well as to generate discussions on some of the challenges of open access in university scholarship. Purdue Libraries also presented the first Leadership in Open Access Award at Purdue to the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering for its support and exercise of the principles of open access.
James L. Mullins, dean of libraries, presented the award to Ragu Balakrishnan, head of ECE, on Wednesday after a faculty panel discussion of “Publishing for Global Impact.” The award ceremony came during one of several events of Open Access Week at Purdue, part of an international observance and awareness effort. The award recognizes the significant contributions of ECE Technical Reports to Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue Libraries’ open access repository. ECE Technical Reports are among the most downloaded materials from Purdue e-Pubs at more than 170,000 full text downloads. “By fully embracing open access for these important research products, the School of ECE extends the impact of its research around the world,” Mullins said. “By making the technical reports available through Purdue Libraries, the reports enter the network of scholarship as citable and durable research objects.” Open access refers to free availability on the Internet, permitting any user to read, download, print, search or link to the full texts of materials. Open access works are freely accessible but their use is still protected under U.S. copyright law.
During the panel Wednesday, six researchers involved in founding open access journals or using Purdue Libraries’ open access repositories discussed how their work developed and is progressing. Those experiences were framed as case studies for the progress and value of open access as a whole.
Two other events were featured during Open Access Week. Ray Crow, senior consultant for SPARC, spoke Monday about “Building Business Models for Campus-based Publishing.” On Thursday, Scott Brandt, associate dean for research and professor of library science, spoke about practices for managing and providing access to data.
Open Access Events:
Building Business Models for Campus-based Publishing Raym Crow, SPARC It is important to understand both the challenges and choices that shape the development of business models for open access journals and other campus-based publishing projects. This presentation discussed the basics of developing a sustainable business model and reviewed models commonly used to support open access journals. Read more about Raym Crow and his work with SPARC.
Publishing for Global Impact Faculty involved in founding open access journals or using Purdue Libraries’ open access repositories discussed how their work developed and is progressing. Those experiences were framed as case studies for the progress and value of open access as a whole. Case studies included:
- Interdisciplinary Journal of Problem-based Learning, presented by Peg Ertmer, College of Education and Michael Grant, Instructional Design and Technology, University of Memphis
- Journal of Problem Solving, presented by Zygmunt Pizlo, Department of Psychology
- Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education, presented by Johannes Strobel, School of Engineering Education
- Journal of Terrestrial Observation, presented by Chris Johanssen, LARS, and Gilbert Rochon, President of Tuskegee University.
- Joint Transportation Research Program, presented by Darcy Bullock, Director of JTRP and Professor of Civil Engineering.
Opening Doors to Access Data: How the Data Curation Profile can Guide Exploration of Research Outputs
International Open Access Week is presented by the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Public Library of Science (PLoS), Students for FreeCulture, eIFL.net, OASIS (the Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook), and the Open Access Directory (OAD). Click here for more information on the international effort.