Opening Science

… anything science 2.0.

[openingscience-blog]

openingscience.org moved!

We decided to open up the field of interest and built a platform around open science including recent RESEARCH and the most striking INITIATIVES dealing with open science.

Of course, we keep posting news around open access and open science.

We hope that the platform will also be used for vivid discussion in the FORUM as well as tool to actually put open science into practice in the OPEN BOOK (coming soon). 

You are invited to contribute to the platform. In order to do this you need to register. All the how-tos are on the TUTORIAL page.

Please note that the platform is a beta version.

You can still receive our news feeds by following us on twitter @OpeningScience.

Thanks for staying tuned!

[openingscience-blog]

Nine years ago today the Open Knowledge Foundation was born. We’ve come a long way from our humble beginnings in Cambridge in 2004.

From government to science to culture, open knowledge is now on its way to being established as an essential part of our information environment.

See also the Global Open Knowledge Foundation MeetUp, wich will take place in the Public Library of Science, San Francisco, CA, this thursday, June 6th, 2013.

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If one isn’t very familiar with OA journals, then one needs to be cautious about selecting one. For authors in the biomedical area, it’s preferable that the journal be indexed in PubMed, the widely-used bibliographic database. A convenient way to check this is to enter the full name of the journal into the PubMed Single Citation Matcher.

[openingscience-blog]

endorsed during the 2nd Annual Global Meeting, 27 – 29 May 2013, Berlin / Germany.

The proposed activities aim at raising awareness for open access, at promoting and supporting open access, and at assessing the implementation of the actions suggested. The action plan is designed to take into account that participants in the GRC come from various backgrounds, have various degrees of expertise in dealing with open access, and have different remits. Thus, funding agencies need to consider which of the proposed activities are appropriate to be taken up by (possibly consortia of) participants in the GRC.

[openingscience-blog]

Interesting enough, research shows that there is a weakening relationship between the impact factor and papers’ citations in the digital age. And that can have consequences, according to the authors: ”If this pattern should continue, it might bring an end to the use of impact factor as a way to evaluate the quality of journals, papers and researcher”.

[openingscience-blog]

Harvard profs consider Mooc ethics

Fifty-eight faculty members have called for Harvard University to create a new faculty committee to consider ethical issues related to edX, the entity created by the university and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to provide massive open online courses.

Times Higher Education. 

[openingscience-blog]

Why everyone must understand science

Science is undoubtedly humanity’s greatest achievement, says AC Grayling, Master of the New College of the Humanities. People have to wake up to the fact that they have to be part of the story in thinking about science, and thinking about the meaning of science as it applies to our world.

BBC.

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Projects is a safe, simple and structured way for scientific researchers to organise their research outputs. It helps to keep track of experiments, save time and get ahead with research.

Digital Science. 

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Innovators, Public Interest Groups & Open Access Supporters Pull Out Of Talks On EU Copyright In Protest

Back in February we reported on a worrying attempt by the European Commission to reframe the discussion about modernizing copyright in Europe purely in terms of licensing, reflected in the name of the initiative, "Licences for Europe". ...

techdirt. 

[openingscience-blog]

Wellcome puts trust in expanded open access

The Wellcome Trust has announced plans to extend its open access policy to include scholarly monographs and book chapters

Times Higher Education. 

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Open-access initiatives to benefit the academy

A variety of schemes would allow the academy to reclaim control of its knowledge and labour, says Steffen Böhm

Times Higher Education. 

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Baba Brinkman's new Rap Guide to Evolution music video: “Artificial Selection”.

Baba will be at the World Science Festival in NY. For more information check here. 

[openingscience-blog]

Happening right now in New York. May 29 - June 2, 2013.

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Research chat with Urs Gasser on youth, digital media and tech trends

May 2013 interview with Urs Gasser, executive director of Harvard's Berkman Center on Internet & Society. Among the topics discussed are youth and privacy, bullying, online education, international social networking trends and the news media.

Journalist's Resource.

[openingscience-blog]

We are armed only with peer review

Alice Bell: Science funding bodies should be opened up to the public, not just industry

The Guardian Blog.

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Three arguments for open access. Today! 

29 May 2013, 6-8pm, UCL, Archaeology Lecture Theatre G6, 31-34 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PY. 

Confirmed speakers:

Dr Mike Taylor, Earth Sciences, University of Bristol and The Guardian

Professor Johnny Golding, Professor of Philosophy & Fine Art, Director, Centre for Fine Art Research, Birmingham City University

Dr Rathna Ramanathan, Central Saint Martins School of Art and Design

[openingscience-blog]

Harold Varmus is still waiting for the revolution. In a 1999 proposal he later described as a “manifesto,” the then director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) suggested creating an electronic repository to host freely accessible research papers, including manuscripts prior to their formal publication. The next year, a version of Varmus's proposal spawned PubMed Central, a digital archive where all papers stemming from NIH-funded research must be submitted within 12 months of publication. However, the agency never created one key aspect of Varmus' ultimate vision: a preprint portal.

Nature Medicine.