OAKList News and Events

Authors guide to understanding Open Access released

2008-06-30T14:00:00Z

Understanding Open Access in the Academic Environment: A Guide for Authors aims to provide practical guidance for academic authors interested in making their work more openly accessible to readers and other researchers. The guide provides authors with an overview of the concept of and rationale for open access to research outputs and how they may be involved in its implementation and with what effect. In doing so it considers the central role of copyright law and publishing agreements in structuring an open access framework as well as the increasing involvement of funders and academic institutions. The guide also explains different methods available to authors for making their outputs openly accessible, such as publishing in an open access journal or depositing work into an open access repository. Importantly, the guide addresses how open access goals can affect an author's relationship with their commercial publisher and provides guidance on how to negotiate a proper allocation of copyright interests between an author and publisher. A Copyright Toolkit is provided to further assist authors in managing their copyright.

The report can be downloaded at the Queensland University of Technology's ePrints (Open-access archive of QUT research literature) at:

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00013935/01/Microsoft_Word_-_Final_Draft_-_website.pdf

OAK Law Releases Survey on Academic Authors and Open Access

2008-05-27T14:00:00Z

The OAK Law Project has released the results of its 2007 nation-wide survey of the attitudes and practices of Australian academic authors towards the publication and dissemination of their research in its report, Academic authorship, publishing agreements and open access: Survey Results.

The survey obtained evidence of author’s experiences with publishing agreements, their perceptions of open access and commercial publishing, their understanding of copyright ownership in their research and their involvement with online repositories and open access journals. It is envisaged that the results will be used to enhance the strategic management of copyright in the Australian research sector, especially in relation to open access.

The report can be downloaded at the Queensland University of Technology's ePrints (Open-access archive of QUT research literature) at:

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00013623/01/13623_2.pdf.

The OAK Law Project will be sending hard copies of the report to universites in the next few weeks. OAK Law has a limited amount of hard copies available to be posted to any academics who may request them. Please email anthony.austin@qut.edu.au to make a request.

SPARC Whitepaper Released

2008-03-02T14:00:00Z

SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), Science Commons, and the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) have jointly released a white paper to help university and medical school administrators ensure their institutions comply with public access requirements that are soon to be a condition of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding.

The timely analysis was prepared by Michael W. Carroll, an attorney, copyright expert, and faculty member at Villanova University law school. Complying with the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy: Copyright Considerations and Options is available free on the SPARC Web site at http://www.arl.org/sparc/advocacy/nih/copyright.html

Methodology report now available

2008-02-11T14:00:00Z

The OAK Law Methodology report is now available.

To view the document, please follow this link : View OAK Law : A Review and Analysis of Academic Publishing Agreements and Open Access Policies