From the Article:

On Monday, five leading universities announced a new “Compact for Open Access Publishing Equity” in which they have pledged to develop systems to pay open access journals for the articles they publish by the institutions’ scholars. In doing so, the institutions are attempting to put to rest the idea that only older publication models (paid and/or print) can support rigorous peer review and quality assurance.

By embracing a new model, the institutions say, they hope to shift away from a system in which rising journal prices have frustrated librarians, and the lack of free access has frustrated those whose institutions can’t afford many journals.

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In addition to MIT, the other institutions that issued the pledge are Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University and the University of California at Berkeley.

Specifically, the universities have each committed to “the timely establishment of durable mechanisms for underwriting reasonable publication charges for articles written by its faculty and published in open access journals and for which other institutions would not be expected to provide funds.”

Source: Inside Higher Ed

From the Blog Post:

Version 76 of the Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is now available from Digital Scholarship. This selective bibliography presents over 3,480 articles, books, and other digital and printed sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet. Where possible, links are provided to works that are freely available on the Internet, including e-prints in disciplinary archives and institutional repositories.

Access Version 76

Source: DigitalKoans and Charles W. Bailey, Jr.

From the Blog Post:

The successful development of open access publishing by organizations including the Public Library of Science (PLoS) in recent years is a dramatic illustration of how the Internet is revolutionizing scientific communication. Today, after several months of work, I’m delighted to announce that PLoS is launching PLoS Currents (Beta) – a new and experimental website for the rapid communication of research results and ideas. In response to the recent worldwide H1N1 influenza outbreak, the first PLoS Currents research theme is influenza.

PLoS Currents: Influenza, which we are launching today, is built on three key components: a small expert research community that PLoS is working with to run the website; Google Knol with new features that allow content to be gathered together in collections after being vetted by expert moderators; and a new, independent database at the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) called Rapid Research Notes, where research targeted for rapid communication, such as the content in PLoS Currents: Influenza will be freely and permanently accessible. To ensure that researchers are properly credited for their work, PLoS Currents content will also be given a unique identifier by the NCBI so that it is citable.

Source: PLoS

From the Article:

The rate at which scientific journal articles are being retracted has increased roughly tenfold over the past two decades, an exclusive analysis for Times Higher Education reveals.

Growth in research fraud as a result of greater pressure on researchers to publish, improved detection and demands on editors to take action have been raised as possible factors in the change.

The study, by the academic-data provider Thomson Reuters, follows the retraction last month of a paper on the creation of sperm from human embryonic stem cells.

[Snip]

The Thomson Reuters analysis charts the number of peer-reviewed scientific-journal articles produced each year from 1990 and the number of retractions.

It shows that over nearly 20 years the number of articles produced has doubled, but the number of retractions – still a small fraction of the literature – has increased 20 times. This is equal to a tenfold increase, factoring in the growth of article.

Source: Times Higher Education

From the Announcement:

Science, the journal of scientific research, news, and commentary published by The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), and JoVE, the scientific video journal, announced that they have entered into a partnership for joint production and publication of scientific videos online. The purpose of the partnership is to enhance scientific articles published in Science through video demonstrations of experimental techniques.

Under the partnership, which is currently in its pilot phase, Science will select papers suitable for the video enhancement, and will identify author groups willing to help shape the video demonstrations. JoVE will then work with the authors to create the actual demonstrations, using the company’s platform for geographically distributed video-production. According to Stewart Wills, Online Editor at Science, direct, in-article video demonstrations should increase the value of Science research to its main audience, working scientists and students.

The announcement contains links to an example (free) where the combination scholarly text and video enhancement can be viewed.

Source: EurekAlert

From the Article:

The Association of Research Libraries reveals that many of its member libraries are already, or soon will be, providing resources that help academics make public-funded research freely-available.

[Snip]

This survey was distributed to the 123 ARL member libraries in February 2009. Respondents were asked to provide information on staffing, partnerships, and resources and services developed for public access policy (PAP) compliance support, and the challenges related to providing such support.

[Snip]

Thirty-seven respondents (53%) indicated that more than one library within their system provides PAP compliance support; eleven (16%) indicated that just one library within their institution is providing this support. Four other institutions (6%) are planning to support PAP compliance.

These and other results come from ARL SPEC Kit 311 and the full text is available at no charge.

Access Spec Kit 311 (16 pages; PDF)

Source: Research Information

From the Article:

The United Nations has partnered with several scientific publishers to provide the world’s least developed countries with free access to online journals.

Called ‘Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi)’, the scheme will allow industrial property offices, universities and research institutes to subscribe free of charge to prominent science and technology publications.

Participating publishers include the American Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences, Oxford University Press and Royal Society of Chemistry.

See Also: Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi)

Source: Research Information