Knowledge unlatched : encouraging innovation in academic publishing through collective action and Open Access licensing

This case study examines the way in which Knowledge Unlatched is combining collective action and open access licenses to encourage innovation in markets for specialist academic books. Knowledge Unlatched is a not for profit organisation that has been established to help a global community of libraries coordinate their book purchasing activities more effectively and, in so doing, to ensure that books librarians select for their own collections become available for free for anyone in the world to read. The Knowledge Unlatched model is an attempt to re-coordinate a market in order to facilitate a transition to digitally appropriate publishing models that include open access. It offers librarians an opportunity to facilitate the open access publication of books that their own readers would value access to. It provides publishers with a stable income stream on titles selected by libraries, as well as an ability to continue selling books to a wider market on their own terms. Knowledge Unlatched provides a rich case study for researchers and practitioners interested in understanding how innovations in procurement practices can be used to stimulate more effective, equitable markets for socially valuable products.

Knowledge unlatched : enabling open access for scholarly books

Although digital technology has made it possible for many more people to access content at no extra cost, fewer people than ever before are able to read the books written by university-based researchers. This workshop explores the role that open access licenses and collective action might play in reviving the scholarly monograph: a specialised area of academic publishing that has seen sales decline by more than 90 per cent over the past three decades. It also introduces Knowledge Unlatched an ambitious attempt to create an internationally coordinated, sustainable route to open access for scholarly books. Knowledge Unlatched is now in its pilot phase.

Open access for scholarly books : policy and practice

Fierce debates have characterised 2013 as the implications of government mandates for open access have been debated and pathways for implementation worked out. There is no doubt that journals will move to a mix of gold and green and there will be an unsettled relationship between the two. But what of books? Is it conceivable that in those subjects, such as in the humanities and social sciences, where something longer than the journal article is still the preferred form of scholarly communications that these will stay closed? Will it be acceptable to have some publicly funded research made available only in closed book form (regardless of whether print or digital) while other subjects where articles are favoured go open access? Frances Pinter is in the middle of these debates, having founded Knowledge Unlatched (see www.knowledgeunlatched.org). KU is a global library consortium enabling open access books. Knowledge Unlatched is helping libraries to work together for a sustainable open future for specialist academic books. Its vision is a healthy market that includes free access for end users. In this session she will review all the different models that are being experimented with around the world. These include author-side payments, institutional subsidies, research funding body approaches etc. She will compare and contrast these models with those that are already in place for journal articles. She will also review the policy landscape and report on how open access scholarly books are faring to date Frances Pinter, Founder, Knowledge Unlatched, UK

Open access and scholarly books : Australian perspectives

This three-hour workshop tackles the crucial question of whether globally coordinated, market based approaches to funding open access monographs can support the unique needs of Australian research communities. The workshop takes place in the context of the release in August 2013 of the Book Industry Collaborative Council (BICC) report and especially the recommendations included in the chapter on scholarly book publishing in the humanities and social sciences. This workshop, with expert speakers from the BICC Committee and from across the scholarly publishing industry, will discuss the policy issues most likely to ensure that Australian scholarly communities and audiences are best served in an era of digital technology and globalisation. Australia must think globally and support developments that enhance the accessibility of publicly-funded research. Speakers will outline recent developments in scholarly monograph publishing including new Open Access initiatives and developments. Knowledge Unlatched, is one example of an attempt to create an internationally coordinated, market-based route to open access for Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences (HASS) monographs. Knowledge Unlatched, a not-for-profit London-based company is piloting a global library consortium approach to funding open access monographs and released its pilot program in early October with 28 titles from 13 publishers. The workshop invites discussion and debate from librarians, publishers, researchers and research funders on the role of international coordination and markets in securing a more open future for Australian HASS scholarship.

Knowledge unlatched : open access and scholarly books - workshop report

On 19 June 2013 Knowledge Unlatched and the Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard Law School jointly convened a one-day workshop titled Open Access and Scholarly Books in Cambridge, MA. The workshop brought together a group of 21 invited publishers, librarians, academics and Open Access innovators to discuss the challenge of making scholarly books Open Access. This report captures discussions that took place on the day.

Data innovation and open access [Blog]

After nearly fifteen years of the open access (OA) movement and its hard-fought struggle for a more open scholarly communication system, publishers are realizing that business models can be both open and profitable. Making journal articles available on an OA license is becoming an accepted strategy for maximizing the value of content to both research communities and the businesses that serve them. The first blog in this two-part series celebrating Data Innovation Day looks at the role that data-innovation is playing in the shift to open access for journal articles.

The next publication revolution : open access and the post-2014 Research Excellence Framework

The world is increasingly moving towards more open models of publishing and communication. The UK government has demonstrated a firm commitment to ensuring that academic research outputs are made available to all who might benefit from access to them, and its open access policy attempts to make academic publications freely available to readers, rather than being locked behind pay walls or only available to researchers with access to well-funded university libraries. Open access policies have an important role to play in fostering an open innovation ecosystem and ensuring that maximum value is derived from investments in university-based research. But are we ready to embrace this change?

The influence of school science teachers : the differential importance attributed by males and females to encouragement from science teachers

Research on the achievement and retention of female students in science and mathematics is located within a context of falling levels of participation in physical science and mathematics courses in Australian schools, and underrepresentation of females in some science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) courses. The Interests and Recruitment in Science (IRIS) project is an international project that aims to contribute to understanding and improving recruitment, retention and gender equity in STEM higher education. Nearly 3500 first year students in 30 Australian universities responded to the IRIS survey of 5-point Likert items and open responses. This paper explores gender differences in first year university students’ responses to three questions about important influences on their course choice. The IRIS study found good teachers were rated highly by both males and females as influential in choosing STEM courses, and significantly higher numbers of females rated personal encouragement from senior high school science teacher as very important. In suggestions for addressing sex disparities in male-dominated STEM courses, more females indicated the importance of good teaching/encouragement and more females said (unspecified) encouragement. This study relates to the influence of school science teachers and results are discussed in relation to implications for science education.

QUT Library advances the use of open public tools to navigate genetic inventions and builds research networks

Many emerging economies are dangling the patent system to stimulate bio-technological innovations with the ultimate premise that these will improve their economic and social growth. The patent system mandates full disclosure of the patented invention in exchange of a temporary exclusive patent right. Recently, however, patent offices have fallen short of complying with such a mandate, especially for genetic inventions. Most patent offices provide only static information about disclosed patent sequences and even some do not keep track of the sequence listing data in their own database. The successful partnership of QUT Library and Cambia exemplifies advocacy in Open Access, Open Innovation and User Participation. The library extends its services to various departments within the university, builds and encourages research networks to complement skills needed to make a contribution in the real world.

Nutritional influences over the life course on lean body mass of individuals in developing countries

The double burden of childhood undernutrition and adult-onset adiposity in transitioning societies poses a significant public health challenge. The development of suboptimal lean body mass (LBM) could partly explain the link between these two forms of malnutrition. This review examines the evidence on both the role of nutrition in “developmental programming” of LBM and the nutritional influences that affect LBM throughout the life course. Studies from developing countries assessing the relationship of early nutrition with later LBM provide important insights. Overall, the evidence is consistent in suggesting a positive association of early nutritional status (indicated by birth weight and growth during first 2 years) with LBM in later life. Evidence on the impact of maternal nutritional supplementation during pregnancy on later LBM is inconsistent. In addition, the role of nutrients (protein, zinc, calcium, vitamin D) that can affect LBM throughout the life course is described. Promoting optimal intakes of these important nutrients throughout the life course is important for reducing childhood undernutrition as well as for improving the LBM of adults.

Open-ended art environments motivate participation

In this research we observe the situated, embodied and playful interaction that participants engage in with open-ended interactive artworks. The larger project from which this work derives [28] contributes a methodological model for the evaluation of open-ended interactive artwork that treats each work individually and recognises the importance of the artist intent and the traditions from which the work derives. In this paper, we describe this evolving methodology for evaluating and understanding participation via three case studies of open-ended interactive art installations. This analysis builds an understanding of open-ended free-play non-narrative environments and the affordances these environments enable for participants.

Building sensitising terms to understand free-play in open-ended interactive art environments

In this paper we introduce and discuss the nature of free-play in the context of three open-ended interactive art installation works. We observe the interaction work of situated free-play of the participants in these environments and, building on precedent work, devise a set of sensitising terms derived both from the literature and from what we observe from participants interacting there. These sensitising terms act as guides and are designed to be used by those who experience, evaluate or report on open-ended interactive art. That is, we propose these terms as a common-ground language to be used by participants communicating while in the art work to describe their experience, by researchers in the various stages of research process (observation, coding activity, analysis, reporting, and publication), and by inter-disciplinary researchers working across the fields of HCI and art. This work builds a foundation for understanding the relationship between free-play, open-ended environments, and interactive installations and contributes sensitising terms useful for the HCI community for discussion and analysis of open-ended interactive art works.

The politics of open-access publishing : M/C Journal, Public Intellectualism, and Academic Discourses of Legitimacy

This article investigates the discourses of academic legitimacy that surround the production, consumption, and accreditation of online scholarship. Using the web-based media and cultural studies journal (http://journal.media-culture.org.au) as a case study, it examines how online scholarly journals often position themselves as occupying a space between the academic and the popular and as having a functional advantage over print-based media in promoting a spirit of public intellectualism. The current research agenda of both government and academe prioritises academic research that is efficient, self-promoting, and relevant to the public. Yet, although the cost-effectiveness and public-intellectual focus of online scholarship speak to these research priorities, online journals such as M/C Journal have occupied, and continue to occupy, an unstable position in relation to the perceived academic legitimacy of their content. Although some online scholarly journals have achieved a limited form of recognition within a system of accreditation that still privileges print-based scholarship, I argue that this, nevertheless, points to the fact that traditional textual notions of legitimate academic work continue to pervade the research agenda of an academe that increasingly promotes flexible delivery of teaching and online research initiatives.

Dancing to too many tunes : contemporary course design in teacher education

Contemporary course designers in schools and faculties of Education are finding themselves dancing to many tunes, arguably too many tunes, in order to have their initial teacher education courses accredited by external agencies whilst satisfying internal approval processes and, critically, maintaining the philosophical integrity of their programs and their institutional watermarks. The “tunes” here are the agendas driven by and the demands made by distinct independent agencies. The external agencies influencing Education include: TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency) which will assure alignment to the AQF (Australian Qualifications Framework); professional bodies such as AITSL (Australian Institute for Teaching and School Leadership) which now accredits all pre-service teacher Education courses across Australia and assures alignment with the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers; and the state and territory regulatory authorities that have an impact within a specific jurisdiction, for example, the Queensland College of Teachers (QCT) and the Teacher Registration Board of Western Australia (TRBWA). This paper – whose findings have been arrived at through a year-long OLT National Teaching Fellowship - will outline the complex and competing agendas currently at play and focus on the disjuncture evident in the fundamental defining of who is a “graduate.” It will also attempt to identify where there are synergies between the complex demands being made. It will argue that there are too many “tunes” and the task of finding a balance between compliance and delivering effective initial teacher education may not be possible because of the cacophony of their conflicting demands.

Open Access and Research Conference 2013: Discovery, Impact and Innovation (Event report)

Event report on the Open Access and Research 2013 conference which focused on recent developments and the strategic advantages they bring to the research sector.