scholarly journals A fun and informative Open Access event?  

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivana Malovic ◽  
Marte J. Søyland ◽  
Tarjei F. Werner ◽  
Nikolai Vågnes ◽  
Therese Skagen

Introduction   The Norwegian research council supports the European cOAlition S, demanding that all scientific articles from the research they finance is openly available from 01.01.20211. Since 2013 the University of Oslo have mandatory institutional archiving of all peer reviewed articles in post-print version (after peer review)2. In 2019 several “publish and read” agreements were established between different publishers and the Norwegian higher education sector, enabling article processing charges to be paid by Norwegian universities and research institutions3.   New agreements and changing regulations might be difficult to grasp by students, faculty and library employees. Aim is to test out basic knowledge about Open Access (OA) among beforementioned groups through a short, fun and informative OA event, while asking: Can a board game help promote Open Access?  Method   Choosing an existing OA board game was done based on the following considerations: it must have a recognizable concept and simple rules, be easy to administer, and not be too time consuming. Our choice is “The Game of Open Access”, a game produced by McGuinn and Spikin at University of Huddersfield, UK4. Modification of questions and answers to better fit a Norwegian context and publishing rules at the University of Oslo was essential. After testing of the game between us, minor alterations to the playing rules were added. Just as in the original game, for each correctly answered question, a participant keeps a card. After completing a round, the player gets a token representing a single published article, and then continues the game. The game is finished after all questions are answered correctly. The winner is the participant with the most points. Each card is worth three points and each token one point. These small modifications make the game more balanced and all participants equally involved.  Before playing the game, a short (five minutes) introduction to OA in Norway with presentation of infographics is given. After the game, an evaluation form is administrated among all participants as an online questionnaire. Gameplaying time is approximately 30 minutes, which makes the game perfect for shorter events.   Results    Result from the evaluation form administered to librarians, students and faculty will be collected in the period September 2019-April 2020, in a range of different events. The first findings show that players are satisfied with board game content and questions, but they also suggest certain improvements   Discussion   Can a board game learning activity taking place outside of the ordinary library instructional courses for students and faculty at the University be an asset spreading awareness about Open Access? Does library staff have the basic understanding of the topic, or is further training needed?      

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arindam Basu

Open access publications are those where following the publication itself, the publishers allow anyone to access the article or publication to read, or download without any restriction. It is believed that publishing in open access journals can increase the visibility of the publication, although uncertainties prevail. In a bid to improve the PBRF ratings, the College research committee in its monthly meeting agreed to organise an Open Access Seminar in the college. The seminar was organised on 4th of June, 2015, Thursday. Four speakers were identified. They were: Peter Lund and Anton Angelo from the University of Canterbury Central Library and Researcn Unit, Peter Binfield from PeerJ, and Viriginia Barbour from Australian Open Access Support Group. The topics of the seminar included a brief introduction to open access publishing and the state of the scenario in NZ and Australia and exploration of the issues around green and gold open access, and future directions as to what can be done to increase participation in open access. The seminar was also designed to be an open to all, and free flowing discussion. This seminar followed a format of webinar and on the spot presentations, questions and answers. A web based page was set up using the openly accessible Adobe Connect "room" where participants could connect even if they were not able to attend in person. Dr Binfield and Barbour were overseas speakers and they connected using the webinar (Adobe Connect). Mr Lund and Angelo were local speakers and they came to the meeting hall directly and spoke. A resource website was set up and the event was recorded for later viewing. The event was publicised across the university and through online channels. About 30 individuals attended the meeting in person, and ten participants joined online. Mr Lund introduced the concept of open access at the University of Canterbury, and introduced the concepts of gold and green open access; Mr Angelo introduced the concepts of creative commons, and Drs Binfield and Barbour discussed models of open access and the situation in Australia. The floor was open for questions, and clarifications and discussions from the audience participation. Key takeaway lessons from the seminar included: at the University of Canterbury, scholars are active in publishing in Open Access channels; green open access is popular in Australia and in New Zealand; newer channels and novel publishing models uitlising the Open Access formats are emerging and becoming popular; while some reservations about quality in open access exist, quality of peer review in OA journals were at par.


Author(s):  
Janne Beate Reitan

Interest in open access (OA) to scientific publications is steadily increasing, both in Norway and internationally. From the outset, FORMakademisk has been published as a digital journal, and it was one of the first to offer OA in Norway. We have since the beginning used Open Journal Systems (OJS) as publishing software. OJS is part of the Public Knowledge Project (PKP), which was created by Canadian John Willinsky and colleagues at the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia in 1998. The first version of OJS came as an open source software in 2001. The programme is free for everyone to use and is part of a larger collective movement wherein knowledge is shared. When FORMakademisk started in 2008, we received much help from the journal Acta Didactic (n.d.) at the University of Oslo, which had started the year before us. They had also translated the programme to Norwegian. From the start, we were able to publish in both Norwegian and English. Other journals have used FORMakademisk as a model and source of inspiration when starting or when converting from subscription-based print journals to electronic OA, including the Journal of Norwegian Media Researchers [Norsk medietidsskrift]. It is in this way that the movement around PKP works and continues to grow to provide free access to research. As the articles are OA, they are also easily accessible to non-scientists. We also emphasise that the language should be readily available, although it should maintain a high scientific quality. Often there may be two sides of the same coin. We on the editorial team are now looking forward to adopting the newly developed OJS 3 this spring, with many new features and an improved design for users, including authors, peer reviewers, editors and readers.


2017 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rita Elisabeth Hvistendahl ◽  
Glenn Ole Hellekjær ◽  
Jon Magne Vestøl

Acta Didactica Norge ble etablert som fritt tilgjengelig tidsskrift for fagdidaktikk og lærerutdanning på nivå 1 i 2007 etter initiativ fra Institutt for lærerutdanning og skoleforskning ved Universitetet i Oslo.  Det var det første norske tidsskriftet som tok i bruk tidsskrifts- og publiseringssystemet Open Journal Systems. I denne artikkelen trekkes det opp noen linjer i tidsskriftets tiårige historie fra etableringen i 2007 gjennom tre faser: oppstart, konsolidering og ekspansjon.  Tidsskriftet er i dag et tidsskrift på publiseringstjenesten FRITT – frie tidsskrifter fra UiO. Det tar verken abonnements- eller publiseringsavgift. Tidsskriftet har hatt en kraftig vekst i antall artikler fra starten til i dag, og et høyt antall nedlastinger tyder på at det når ut til en stor leserskare. Acta Didactica Norge 2007 - 2017AbstractIn 2007 Acta Didactica Norge, an open-access, level 1 journal for subject didactics and teacher education, was established at the initiative of the Department of Teacher Education and School Research, the University of Oslo.  It was the first Norwegian journal to use the Open Journal Systems for online journals. This article provides an overview of the first ten years, through the start-up, consolidation, and expansion phases. Today Acta Didactica Norge is one of Oslo University’s FRITT journals, which does not require subscription or publication fees.  FRITT is an Open Access journal publishing service hosted by the University Library. During the last ten years the journal has had a dramatic increase in submitted and published articles and a high number of downloads give evidence of a wide readership.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arindam Basu

Open access publications are those where following the publication itself, the publishers allow anyone to access the article or publication to read, or download without any restriction. It is believed that publishing in open access journals can increase the visibility of the publication, although uncertainties prevail. In a bid to improve the PBRF ratings, the College research committee in its monthly meeting agreed to organise an Open Access Seminar in the college. The seminar was organised on 4th of June, 2015, Thursday. Four speakers were identified. They were: Peter Lund and Anton Angelo from the University of Canterbury Central Library and Researcn Unit, Peter Binfield from PeerJ, and Viriginia Barbour from Australian Open Access Support Group. The topics of the seminar included a brief introduction to open access publishing and the state of the scenario in NZ and Australia and exploration of the issues around green and gold open access, and future directions as to what can be done to increase participation in open access. The seminar was also designed to be an open to all, and free flowing discussion. This seminar followed a format of webinar and on the spot presentations, questions and answers. A web based page was set up using the openly accessible Adobe Connect "room" where participants could connect even if they were not able to attend in person. Dr Binfield and Barbour were overseas speakers and they connected using the webinar (Adobe Connect). Mr Lund and Angelo were local speakers and they came to the meeting hall directly and spoke. A resource website was set up and the event was recorded for later viewing. The event was publicised across the university and through online channels. About 30 individuals attended the meeting in person, and ten participants joined online. Mr Lund introduced the concept of open access at the University of Canterbury, and introduced the concepts of gold and green open access; Mr Angelo introduced the concepts of creative commons, and Drs Binfield and Barbour discussed models of open access and the situation in Australia. The floor was open for questions, and clarifications and discussions from the audience participation. Key takeaway lessons from the seminar included: at the University of Canterbury, scholars are active in publishing in Open Access channels; green open access is popular in Australia and in New Zealand; newer channels and novel publishing models uitlising the Open Access formats are emerging and becoming popular; while some reservations about quality in open access exist, quality of peer review in OA journals were at par.


2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062199641
Author(s):  
Ilias Nitsos ◽  
Afrodite Malliari ◽  
Rodopi Chamouroudi

The use of reference management software in the context of academic work and research is the main subject of this study. The study focuses on the extent to which postgraduate students at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, one of the largest Greek universities, make use of – or avoid using – reference management software tools to organize their bibliographic databases and to automate the process of creating references and citations. The study also tries to find out which are the key factors for their choices and whether certain background characteristics affect their behavior. It should be mentioned that no previous studies have been conducted in Greece regarding the use of reference management software in the academic environment. An online questionnaire was sent to the postgraduate students at the University and a result set of 545 responses was collected and analyzed. The majority (almost two-thirds) of the respondents identified themselves as non-users and one-third identified themselves as reference management software users. Among the latter, Mendeley was found to be the software used by more than two-thirds of the users and was followed by EndNote and Zotero. It is worth mentioning that Mendeley is the software officially recommended by the University’s central library to its users but most of the students (more than 60%) were not aware of this fact. In terms of background characteristics, the analysis revealed, among other things, statistically significant relationships between degree level, student discipline and preferences, reference management software features, and potential future use of reference management software.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane M. Styers ◽  
Jennifer L. Schafer ◽  
Mary Beth Kolozsvary ◽  
Kristen M. Brubaker ◽  
Sara E. Scanga ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 76-86 ◽  
Author(s):  
Somaly Kim Wu ◽  
Heather McCullough

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to presents the very recent development of e-journal publishing services at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Charlotte. In 2011, the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte created a new unit in the library, the Digital Scholarship Lab (DSL), which partners with faculty and graduate students in the use of digital and networked research tools to create, disseminate and store new knowledge. E-journal publishing and hosting are among the suite of services offered by the DSL, and we currently publish three journals (https://journals.uncc.edu/). Design/methodology/approach – This report provides an overview of the context of our library’s decision to begin publishing journals, including a discussion of our university’s becoming more research-intensive, our university system mandating increased efficiencies and sharing research with the state citizens, and the library’s own goals of raising awareness of and supporting open access. Also outlined are the technical and procedural choices made, important activities undertaken to develop, define and publicize the new services, campus response to the service and next steps. Findings – This report provides detailed accounting of how a large academic library implemented an electronic publishing service to support open access scholarship. Important activities such as marketing communication, policies development and technical/procedural activities are defined and results described. The report provides observation and lessons learned for academic libraries in development and support of electronic journals. Originality/value – Library as the publisher is a new concept. This report will be of interest to many libraries who are considering offering publishing services and to libraries that currently offer publishing services.


2005 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-188 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNETTE LYKKNES ◽  
LISE KVITTINGEN ◽  
ANNE KRISTINE BØØRRESEN

ABSTRACT Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968) became Norway's first authority of radioactivity and the country's second female professor. After several years in international centers of radiochemistry, Gleditsch returned to Norway, becoming associate professor and later full professor of chemistry. Between 1916 and 1946 Gleditsch tried to establish a laboratory of radiochemistry at the University of Oslo, a career which included network building, grant applications, travels abroad, committee work, research, teaching, supervision, popularization, and war resistance work. Establishing a new field was demanding; only under her student, Alexis Pappas, was her field institutionalized at Oslo. This paper presents Gleditsch's everyday life at the Chemistry Department, with emphasis on her formation of a research and teaching laboratory of radiochemistry. Her main scientific work during this period is presented and discussed, including atomic weight determination of chlorine, age calculations in minerals, the hunt for actinium's ancestor and investigations on 40K.


1983 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 52-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew von Hirsch

The idea of sentences proportionate to the gravity of the criminal conduct has been generating interest in the Scandinavian countries, as well as in the United States. This article, based on a lecture given by the author at the University of Oslo, explores Scandinavian ideas of "neoclassicism" in sentencing. Drawing on the Scandinavian literature, the author examines the conceptual basis for the idea of proportionate (deserved) sentences, and explores the justification for the existence of the criminal sanction.


Sexual Health ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 207 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Simpson ◽  
Christine Clifford ◽  
Kaz Ross ◽  
Neil Sefton ◽  
Louise Owen ◽  
...  

Background Evidence suggests a varied level of sexual health literacy (SHL) among university student populations, so we evaluated the SHL among students at the University of Tasmania. Methods: Students were invited to complete an anonymous online questionnaire during August/September 2013. SHL was assessed using the ARCSHS National Survey of Australian Secondary Students & Sexual Health (ARC) and the Sexual Health Questionnaire (SHS). Predictors of literacy scores were evaluated by linear regression. Results: The study recruited 1786 participants (8.2% of 2013 student population), of similar composition to the general university population. Female sex, older age, sexual education, and sexual experience were significant predictors of SHL. As hypothesised, students in medical/nursing disciplines had the highest SHL. Less expected were the significant differences by birthplace and religious affiliation, many of which persisted on adjustment for confounders. Compared with Australian/New Zealander students, overseas-born students had significantly lower ARC (–3.6%, P < 0.001) & SHS (–4.2%, P < 0.001); this was driven by Malaysian, Indian, and Chinese students. Compared with agnostic/atheist-identifying students, those of Buddhist (ARC: –5.4%, P = 0.014; SHS: –6.7%, P = 0.002), Hindu (ARC: –8.8%, P = 0.098; SHS: –12.2%, P = 0.027), Muslim (ARC: –16.5%, P < 0.001; SHS: –13.4%, P = 0.001) and Protestant (ARC: –2.3%, P = 0.023; SHS: –4.4%, P < 0.001) identifications had markedly lower SHL. Conclusions: This study, one of the first among university students in Australia, found a varied SHL by sex, age, sexual education and sexual experience, as well as by birthplace and religious affiliation. These findings have applications in orientation and education programs at Australian universities.


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