Many of the discussions surrounding Open Access (OA) revolve around how it affects publishing practices across different academic disciplines. Recent large-scale bibliometric studies show that the uptake of OA differs substantially across disciplines. This study investigates the underlying mechanisms that cause disciplines to vary in their OA publishing practices. How do different disciplines adopt and shape OA publishing practices? What discipline-specific barriers to and potentials for OA can be identified?

Leslie Chan is Associate Director at the University of Toronto Scarborough. As one of the original signatories of the Budapest Open Access Initiative, he has been active in the experimentation and implementation of scholarly communication initiatives of varying scales around the world. He expresses his views about the internationalisation of research produced in the Global South, the current state of Open Access, and the Knowledge G.A.P project, an attempt to understand the various social justice issues related to the production and circulation of academic knowledge.

On November 19 & 20, 2018, a repository workshop was held in Zanzibar City, Tanzania. The workshop was jointly organized by West and Central African Research and Education Network (WACREN), EIFL and the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) in conjunction with the UbuntuNet Alliance Conference as part of the LIBSENSE Initiative. This is the first in a series of meetings to develop a more cohesive strategy for strengthening and building repository networks in Africa. The participants identified a number of areas in which libraries and Research and Education Networks (RENs) can collaborate to improve and strengthen repositories in the region. 

This paper examines issues relating to the perceptions and adoption of open access (OA) and institutional repositories. Using a survey research design, data was collected from academics and other researchers in the humanities, arts and social sciences (HASS) at a university in Australia. This study contributes to the growing literature on scholarly communication by offering evidence from the HASS field, where limited studies have been conducted. Based on their findings, the authors recommend that academic librarians engage with faculty through outreach and workshops to change perceptions of OA and the institutional repository.

An updated analysis of Open Data and Open Science policies across Europe reports a continued increase in the growth of related policies and an increase in uptake in countries where no such policy previously existed. This report specifically examines activity across Europe between January and November 2018. The analysis delves into the types of policies in place across Europe, examining their processes of creation and some key specifics.

The ISSN IC published on Friday, December 21^st, 2018 a “Request For Information” concerning the development of a new ISSN production tool.

Companies interested in the ISSN+ project  will send to the ISSN IC an application file, the content of which is presented in the attached document. Based on the criteria outlined in the RFI, ISSN IC will then retain several candidates and will forward to them detailed specifications. The RFI can be downloaded here.

Potential questions will be forwarded to informatique@issn.org by January 25th, 2019. The deadline for submitting applications is Thursday, January 31st, 2019 at noon (CET). Tenders should be sent to tenders@issn.org.

Would you like to live in Paris? Do you enjoy multicultural working environments? Do you enjoy working with librarians, publishers, information providers and metadata? Are you interested in a professional experience that offers many challenges within a specialized team? Are you ready to carry out missions abroad?

The ISSN International Centre, an intergovernmental organization based in Paris, is hiring a project manager to coordinate the ISSN Network and implement its cooperation policy with international partner organizations. More information at https://www.issn.org/career/

As the first and single entry point for the identification of all kinds of print and digital serials and other continuing resources (retail, educational and scholarly), the ISSN International Centre and the ISSN Network are the cornerstone of a wider system including the publishing industry, the distribution and retail industry, libraries, scholars and readers.

This consultancy mission will provide guidance to set up the new strategy of the ISSN International Centre for years 2020-2024.

More information available here.

A ballot on the next version of the ISO 3297 standard has just been launched by ISO. The national standard-setting organizations of TC46/SC9 Information and documentation – Identification and description member countries are required to submit their votes and comments to ISO before March 27^th, 2019.