Nov 1
Repeating news that various others have noted, it seems useful to call attention to the Social Science Open Access Repository. For many folklorists and anthropologists without access to an institutional repository into which to deposit pre-prints and or other materials for which suitable author rights have been retained, this looks like a very promising new option.
I have updated my earlier essay on enclosure in scholarly communications with a sort of index (at the end of the piece) of all of the major discussions of it of which I am aware. While there have been exchanges and posts on various weblogs, the main “debates” have happened on listservs in the OA and librarian communities. Links to the relative archives for these are given in the update. Thanks to everyone who considered the essay and made it my most read piece of writing on this site.
From a SPARC press release circulated today.
International awareness week marks new beginning for enabling the Web and advancing research through Open Access
Washington, DC – The first International Open Access Week (October 19 – 23) may have just come to a close, but the broad spectrum of initiatives that it showcased ensures that Open Access to research will play a central role in advancing the conduct of research and scholarship for years to come. Events took place on more than 300 higher education, research, and other sites worldwide, illustrating the dramatic growth of the global network that has emerged in support of Open Access. Read more
Oct 28
What follows is a press release circulated today. This is a big deal in that it shows JSTOR continuing to move aggressively into the space occupied by ProjectMUSE. I appreciate the scale work that JSTOR is doing and that it is a not-for-profit effort in support of other not-for-profit efforts, but I am concerned about the ways that JSTOR/ITHAKA represents a growing consolidation of voices and resources. I am not convinced that JSTOR/ITHAKA hegemony is in our collective interests. I certainly think that the ITHAKA-JSTOR merger itself undermined any claim that ITHAKA had been able to make about being a neutral but interested party in scholarly communications research and consulting. This agreement is of special interest to disciplines (like my own) that are represented on the Illinois journal list or journal co-publishing list. One wonders what form the blessing from UI librarians, discussed in the release, took.
The University of Illinois Press signs agreement with JSTOR, joining a new effort to improve access to current scholarship for faculty, students, and librarians.
October 27, 2009 – Champaign, IL and New York, NY –The University of Illinois Press, the not-for-profit publishing division of the University of Illinois, and JSTOR, the preservation archive and research platform that is part of the not-for-profit ITHAKA, announced an agreement today to make leading journals from the Press available worldwide as part of the Current Scholarship Program.
The Current Scholarship Program is a new collaboration initiated by University of California Press and JSTOR and first announced on August 13, 2009. Together, participants in this Program aim to create an improved online work environment for faculty and students by bringing complete journal runs from multiple publishers together in one place, to ease the burden on librarians of negotiating separate license agreements with a multitude of publishers and independent titles, and to promote a more cost-effective publishing environment for the scholarly community.
“For the last several years the University of Illinois Press and JSTOR have worked together through the History Cooperative, building strong ties of respect and trust,” said Willis G. Regier, Director of the University of Illinois Press. “We take this step with the blessings of our colleagues in the University of Illinois Library and with high anticipation for our journals.” Read more
The Bard Graduate Center and the American Museum of Natural History announce a Research Fellowship in Museum Anthropology. The fellowship provides support to a postdoctoral investigator to carry out a specific project over a two-year period. The program is designed to advance the training of the participant by having her/him pursue a project in association with a curator in the Division of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH). The Fellow will also be expected to teach one graduate-level course per year at the Bard Graduate Center (BGC). The Fellow will thus be in joint residence at BGC and AMNH, beginning in September 2010 and continuing through June 2012. The fellowship includes free housing.
Read more
What amounts to the Nobel Prize in Folklore Studies was announced last week at the American Folklore Society meetings in Boise, Idaho. I am so super pleased that two friends with ties to my home department are sharing the award for 2009. The Chicago Folklore Prize is a book prize and it is the oldest and most distinguished award in folklore studies. Begun in 1928 by the University of Chicago, it is today given by the university in partnership with the American Folklore Society.
Sharing the prize are my colleague Michael Dylan Foster (Assistant Professor of Folklore at Indiana University) and Ray Cashman (Associate Professor of Folklore at The Ohio State University). Ray earned his Ph.D. in folklore here at Indiana University. Michael’s book is Pandemonium and Parade: Japanese Monsters and the Culture of Yôkai (University of California Press). Ray’s book is Storytelling on the Northern Irish Border: Characters and Community (Indiana University Press).
Indiana University has distributed a press release celebrating news of their winning the prize. Congratulations to Michael and Ray and to folklore studies.
Oct 21
There are multiple reasonable points of view on the issues that I raised in the short “Getting Out of the Business…” essay that I posted here on the 12th. Setting those aside, the exercise is a reminder of why access questions matter. As of a moment ago, 520 folks had consulted the essay. While small by New York Times standards, it is quite extensive when compared to most scholarly writings. I want to register my thanks for all of these readers and especially for those of you who have commented to me publicly or privately. If I had published that essay as an editorial in a typical scholarly journal in my fields, it would have taken a considerable amount of time to see publication, could have cost more than $1000 (before in-kind contributions), and then would have hardly attracted any notice. As an illustration of this contention, I can point to my contribution as editor in Museum Anthropology volume 32, number 1. While I would have been much, much happier not to have experienced the obligation to author such a document (an Expression of Concern), its ramifications for several disciplines is very large. While I know that it was read by some colleagues, it was largely met by deafening silence. There is more to that than accessibility, but accessibility is definitely one factor. In any event, thank you interested readers and linkers.
Here, from H-Folk, is an opportunity to contribute to a well-established free access journal in folklore studies.
Call for publication: Folklore: EJF – Special issue on folk games and sports
Article submission deadline: 1 September 2010
Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore is interdisciplinary peer-reviewed open access journal which has been published by academic publishers three times a year since June 1996. The journal is published in English, with occasional German papers. The printed publication is complemented by an online version of the journal, available at http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/. Folklore: EJF is indexed in Thomson Reuters Arts & Humanities Citation Index, EBSCO Publishing Humanities International Complete, MLA Folklore Bibliography, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, IVB, DOAJ, and C.E.E.O.L. Links to the journal appear on the websites of more than 60 central research institutions, incl. the most prestigious university libraries and specialised portals.
The journal has a distinguished international board of editors which is elected for the period of 5-8 years. Folklore: EJF is the only journal on cultural studies in the Baltic States and Eastern Europe to publish original papers by scholars all over the world on folkloristics, comparative religion, cultural anthropology and related fields, including articles on mythology, religion and tradition, paremiology, narratives, poetic folklore, ethnomusicology, archaeology, etc. The journal has mediated scholarly research results since 1996 and has thus furthered scholarship in the humanities between different parts of the world.
Editors of Folklore: EJF invite submissions for a special issue of folk games and sports from scholars from different parts of the world.
The editors an
d staff of Museum Anthropology Review are pleased to announce the publication of the journal’s latest issue, 3(2). As noted previously, publication of the issue is timed to coincide with the celebration of Open Access Week. Thanks go to the authors, reviewers, peer-reviewers, and helpers who make this gold open access journal happen. Thanks go as well to our wonderful publisher, the Indiana University Bloomington Libraries.
Open Access Week begins on on Monday, October 19 and, in celebration, Museum Anthropology Review will be publishing its next issue– 3(2). Its a great issue and we look forward to sharing it with the world in beautiful, accessible, affordable Gold OA.
If you like the journal, please register as a reader and/or author. Its free. Your registration helps us know who is invested in the future of the journal and you can get free table of contents sent by email.
Along similar lines, please consider becoming a Fan of Museum Anthropology Review on Facebook.
Happy Open Access Week.
Shreds and Patches 