open access week

home Resources and Services Reach the World with MOspace

Reach the World with MOspace

By Ying Hu   Posted in Resources and Services
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Open Access (OA) refers to the free access of online resources and is of particular importance when those resources are research articles, papers and publications. Open access makes these resources available to more people in more places. The University of Missouri Libraries support the goals of open access for MU research materials though the provision of MOspace, the MU institutional repository. MOspace is an online repository for creative and scholarly works created by MU faculty, students, staff, and departments.

What difference does open access make? Materials freely available on the web often reach a wider audience than those available in high-cost journals. For example, a preprint of the following article was added to MOspace in 2021.

The preprint in MOspace was downloaded 462 times and the item page was viewed 489 times by users in the United States, China, Philippines, Australia, Malaysia, Canada, the United Kingdom, Egypt and more.

The top ten countries for all MU material downloaded from MOspace in the past six months are:

  • United States;
  • Philippines;
  • Germany;
  • India;
  • United Kingdom;
  • China;
  • Canada;
  • Russia
  • Indonesia;
  • Australia.

Additional countries in Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East are reflected in the top 40 countries with MOspace users. Most of these users were referred from internet browsers or search engines including Google, Google Scholar, DuckDuckGo, Bing and Yahoo.

Open access supports the efforts of MU researchers by making their research more widely available and supports scholars around the world by ensuring free and open access to important research. To find out more, check these library guides:

home Resources and Services MU Published 1,017 Open Access Articles in 2022

MU Published 1,017 Open Access Articles in 2022

By Rachel Alexander   Posted in Resources and Services
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International Open Access Week was October 24-30! This year’s theme, Open For Climate Justice, seeks to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Sharing knowledge is a human right, and tackling the climate crisis requires the rapid exchange of knowledge across geographic, economic, and disciplinary boundaries.

So far this year, MU authors published 1,017 open-access articles. These articles have already been cited 826 times; sixteen of which have been listed as Web of Science highly cited papers.

Drs. Qureshi, Baskett, Huang, Lobanova, Navqu and Shyu recently published an open-access article in Clinical Infectious Disease looking at reinfection from SARS-CoV-2. The article has performed well in altmetrics and in Web of Science metrics. Read the article here.

Thank you to all of our MU authors who chose to publish open access.

Adnan I Qureshi, William I Baskett, Wei Huang, Iryna Lobanova, S Hasan Naqvi, Chi-Ren Shyu, Reinfection With Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Patients Undergoing Serial Laboratory Testing, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Volume 74, Issue 2, 15 January 2022, Pages 294–300, https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/ciab345

home Resources and Services New White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Guidelines Change Public Access Requirements

New White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Guidelines Change Public Access Requirements

By Rachel Alexander   Posted in Resources and Services
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New White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Guidelines Change Public Access Requirements

This summer, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) published new guidelines requiring all federally funded research be made available to the public freely and immediately upon its publication. The new memo builds on a 2013 directive, which aimed to increase access to publicly funded research. When introducing the guideline change, Dr. Alondra Nelson, head of OTSP, said, “When research is widely available to other researchers and the public, it can save lives, provide policymakers with the tools to make critical decisions, and drive more equitable outcomes across every sector of society…”

The new OSTP memo contains three important updates:

  • Removing the 12-month delay before research publications funded by the largest federal agencies become publicly available;
  • Directing that both federally-funded research publications and their supporting data should be made publicly accessible at the time of publication; and
  • Bringing all federal agencies into alignment with this open-access publishing policy

Agencies have until the end of 2025 to fully implement their public access and data-sharing plans.

For more information, see this fact sheet from the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC).

home Workshops Workshops and Recordings for Open Access Week

Workshops and Recordings for Open Access Week

By Rachel Alexander   Posted in Workshops
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Workshops and Recordings for Open Access Week

International Open Access Week is October 24-30! This year’s theme is Open For Climate Justice. This year’s theme seeks to encourage connection and collaboration among the climate movement and the international open community. Sharing knowledge is a human right, and tackling the climate crisis requires the rapid exchange of knowledge across geographic, economic, and disciplinary boundaries.

For open access week, MU Libraries is hosting U Publish @ Your Library: Open Access at MU. 

The open-access publishing model grants readers free and open online access to scholarly information. Learn how open access works and how the University of Missouri Libraries support scholars who want to publish their research in open-access journals. 

Register can still register for tomorrow’s workshop here.

Can’t make this week’s workshop? We can watch some of our recorded workshops related to open access: 

Check out library guide to learn more about why open access is important, how you can publish your work open access, and retain your copyright.

home Resources and Services Use MOspace to Measure the Worldwide Impact of Your Research

Use MOspace to Measure the Worldwide Impact of Your Research

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Resources and Services
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MOspace is the freely available online repository for scholarship and other works by University of Missouri faculty, students, and staff.

You retain copyright, and we provide access.

How does this work? Once items are submitted, the platform can provide statistics like number of downloads and which countries those downloads come from. Materials freely available on the web often reach a wider audience than those available in high-cost journals. For example, a postprint of the following article was added to MOspace in 2018.

Since the post print was added, the article has 2,611 downloads from all over the world.

Interested in seeing the worldwide impact of your research? Submit your your work using our online form today.

You can further your impact by signing up for an ORCID ID at ORCID.org.

home Resources and Services Increase Your Scholarly Impact: Use the SPARC Author Addendum

Increase Your Scholarly Impact: Use the SPARC Author Addendum

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Resources and Services
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Your article was recently accepted for publication and you want to make sure your research has the widest reach and impact. One way to make sure this happens is retaining your author rights.

Traditional publishing agreements sign your copyright away to the publisher, lessening your impact as an author. When you don’t hold your copyright, you might not be allowed to give copies to your class or distribute it among colleagues. And depending on what you sign, you aren’t allowed to put your article on your webpage or in an online depository, further limiting your exposure.

So how do you make sure you retain your copyright? Publishing agreements are negotiable. Know your rights and consider using the SPARC author addendum* to modify your agreement. The SPARC author addendum is a free and legal resource that helps you easily modify your publishing agreement.

Need help or have questions? Visit our know your rights guide or contact your subject librarian.

*The Author Addendum is a free resource developed by SPARC in partnership with Creative Commons and Science Commons, established non-profit organizations that offer a range of copyright options for many different creative endeavors.

home Workshops Retaining Your Author Rights

Retaining Your Author Rights

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Workshops
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Don’t Sign Away Your Rights!

Traditional publishers’ agreements often transfer copyright from the author to the publisher, giving them the right to reproduce and redistribute your work.

The most important thing you can do is read your copyright transfer agreement. Don’t like what it says? You can amend the agreements to retain the rights you need to make copies of your work and to share it with others.

Examine your publishers’ agreements

What is the publisher requiring of you? Those agreements that require you to transfer all your rights limit what you can do with your own work—that is, you are no longer the copyright holder.

If your publisher agreement reads something like: “the undersigned authors transfer ownership of copyright, including the right to publish and distribute the work by any means, method, or process whether now known or to be development in the future, to the Publisher,” consider amending the agreement.

Agreements that let you retain control of your work often have phrases like: “I grant the journal a non-exclusive license to publish my work”; “I understand that no rights are transferred to the Journal”; or “I understand that a Creative Commons license will be applied to my work.”

Modify your agreements when needed

Publishing agreements are negotiable. Know your rights and consider using the SPARC author addendum to modify your agreement.

Deposit your work in MOspace

If you’ve retained the right to post to an online archive, submit your work to the MOspace Institutional Repository. An institutional repository, like MOspace, is one of the best ways to disseminate and preserve your work.  As an open access tool, MOspace ensures that current and future generations of scholars benefit by finding your work.

More information on retaining your rights.

home Resources and Services Make Your Research Open

Make Your Research Open

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Resources and Services
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At MU Libraries, we’re committed to making access to research more sustainable, affordable and open. And we need your help!

In traditional publishing models, scholars surrender their copyright to commercial publishers in order to disseminate their research findings in scholarly journals. Publishers then sell or rent that same content back to the institution through journal subscriptions—at ever increasing prices. This unsustainable practice costs institutions millions of dollars every year and creates barriers to access for many. Open access publishing encourages scholars to retain their rights and make their work freely available online, increasing the availability and impact of research.  

What You Can Do:  

Retain Your Rights: No matter where you publish, the single most important thing you can do to make scholarly publishing more sustainable and equitable is Retain Your Rights. It’s your copyright – don’t just sign it away! Contracts are often negotiable. And read those agreements: you may have more rights to share your research than you realize.  

Know Your Options: Choose the right venue for your research and know your open access options. If you’re an editor or manuscript reviewer, ask about the journal’s OA options. 

Share Your Work: Deposit your research in MOspace, MU’s Digital Institutional Repository. Submitting your work to MOspace is easy. Just log in with your SSO and complete the Creative Commons license.

Learn More: Talk with your Subject Specialist about open access in your area or request a Zoom workshop for your department, team or lab. 

home Resources and Services Get Involved with Open Access

Get Involved with Open Access

By Shannon Cary   Posted in Resources and Services
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International Open Access Week is October 25 – 31! This year’s theme is It Matters How We Open Knowledge: Building Structural Equity.

Heard about Open Access? Now, go a step further and explore your Open Access options:

  • Identify OA journals in your subject area.
  • Explore subject-oriented open repositories.
  • Read the OA policies of journals or publishers for which you edit or review.
  • Check out the attention received by your department in MOSpace, thanks to Open Access. Click on your school/department, scroll to the bottom, and click on “show statistical information.”
  • Install the Open Access or unpaywall buttons for easy access to OA articles.
  • Read how to optimize student publishing.
  • Connect with the OpenCon community.

What is your next step?

Questions about Open Access? Check out our guide or contact your Subject Specialist.

home Ellis Library, J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library, Resources and Services Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

Protect Yourself and Your Research from Predatory Journal Publishers

By Taira Meadowcroft   Posted in Ellis Library J. Otto Lottes Health Sciences Library Resources and Services
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Predatory publishing doesn’t just take advantage of authors by misrepresenting review, editorial, and fee structures. It also hinders access to the work itself, hurting the overall enterprise of research. The epidemic of predatory journals reached serious enough heights in 2016 that the Federal Trade Commission charged OMICS, one such publisher of hundreds of predatory journals, for its deceptive practices.

“If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” says Janice Dysart, Science Librarian and creator of the Where to Publish Your Research guide. “Be wary of these email solicitations from publishers trying to get you to submit articles to their journals.” She recommends using the Think Check Submit checklist to determine whether a publisher is legitimate.

Anyone can fall victim to predatory journal publishers. Jung Ha-Brookshire, Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies, College of Human Environmental Sciences, and Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies, Textile and Apparel Management, relates her experience after a graduate student recommended a journal a few years ago. She says, “I didn’t think twice about it. We submitted our paper and got accepted without any revisions. Then they were asking us to send money somewhere in Pakistan.” She still didn’t realize what was happening because she hadn’t even heard of “predatory journals.”

That all changed about a year later when she learned of a list of predatory journals from her colleagues. “We found out that our journal was on that list,” she says. They tried to withdraw their work from the publication but couldn’t. Because the journal wasn’t legitimate, the article could only be found via the specific URL and not by searching, so they pulled the publication information from their CVs. Jung says, “We had to take that manuscript as a loss because we couldn’t even take that paper to other publishers since, technically, it is already published.”

After that experience, Jung now checks with her subject librarian, Noël Kopriva, every time she encounters a journal she hasn’t heard of, “no matter how good the website looks.” Jung advises, “Be careful with choosing the right journals. Do not get fooled by address, location, a beautiful website, and a wonderful set of editorial board names. Check with your librarian first when in doubt!”

For more information on how to spot predatory journal publishers, see our Where to Publish Your Research guide or contact your subject librarian

Originally published in 2018 by Jen Gravley, Research and Instruction Librarian