Open Access notes

On the Open Access front... First, it's always good to keep an eye on the Directory of Open Access, better known as DOAJ, which lists open access journals for the field. There are 35 titles under Media and Communication. You may also want to tool around in the broader Social Sciences list. Not sure what constitutes an open access journal. Here's DOAJ's official definition:

We define open access journals as journals that use a funding model that does not charge readers or their institutions for access." "...the right of users to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles" [is] "mandatory for a journal to be included in the directory....Quality Control: The journal must exercise peer-review or editorial quality control to be included.

New open access journals are springing up all the time it seems. Besides the new International Journal of Communications (highlighted in a previous post), Communications in Information Literacy (CIL) is about to be launched (Spring 2007). It describes itself as an independent, professional, refereed electronic journal dedicated to advancing knowledge, theory, and research in the area of information literacy, the journal is committed to the principles of information literacy as set forth by the Association of College and Research Libraries. CIL is also committed to the principles of open access for academic research.

Lastly(at least for this post), if you're interested in OA in general you might want to sign on to SPARC's new Open Access Newsletter. SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, is an alliance of universities, research libraries, and organizations. The coalition was an initiative of the Association of Research Libraries, started in 1997 to be a constructive response to market dysfunctions in the scholarly communication system. SPARC serves as a catalyst for action, helping to create systems that expand information dissemination and use in a networked digital environment while responding to the needs of academe. SOAN, the monthly newsletter by Peter Suber offers news and analysis of the open-access movement. SOAN was launched in July 2003 to continue Suber's Free Online Scholarship (FOS) Newsletter (March 2001 - September 2002). The newsletter is the same; only the title has changed to reflect the role of SPARC's sponsorship, though Suber's views are his own and do not necessarily represent the views of SPARC.