Defending the Knowledge Commons

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SUPPORT THE KNOWLEDGE COMMONS Scholars are on the front lines in the struggle to keep information free and accessible to those without access to well-resourced university libraries. This is a rapidly growing population as publishers consolidate their control of the scholarly publishing industry. Here are resources to help scholars be part of a collective effort to defend the knowledge commons and protect open access to scholarly work for everyone. (The following tips come from presentation by Erin McKiernan-see below)

Support for publishing Open Access

Don't lock up your research!

  • Learn about the creative commons
  • [Resources for authors]-keep your research accessible
  • Pledge to be open!
  • * I will devote most of my reviewing and publishing efforts to Open Access journals.
* I will blog my work and post preprints, when possible.
* I will encourage my colleagues to take a similar pledge.
* I will encourage my co-authors to publish in Open Access journals.
* If I am going to 'make it' in science, it has to be on terms I can live with.

Change the Academic Culture

|- |# Not to consider journal-based metrics (Journal Impact Factor) in hiring, promotion, or funding decisions |- |# The content of a paper will be weighed more heavily in evaluations than the journal in which it was published |- |# To consider the value and impact of all research outputs |- |* ====U.S. universities such as Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of North Texas have adopted formal statements supporting and encouraging Open Access publishing.==== |}


More Resources & Background on Academic Publishing and Open Access

Access video recording of lecture and McKiernan’s resourceful presentation slides here >> Summary of McKiernan's slides with link

  • Use and promote Free and Open Source Software (FOSS). Here are some especially useful tools for scholars and activists:

Online meetings-video & audio and desktop sharing technology: Jitsi.org Open Office Libre Office

Organizing Tools Say no to Skype—Use Jitsi: Jitsi, an open source, secure online video-audio connection for meetings of 2-many people. No software to download, online notepad, secure and no user data is collected. Just share the meeting URL with participants. [1] Email that doesn’t share your data with advertisers or the NSA: Don’t give in to Google: www.riseup.net Open source survey program [2] Meeting/ webinar program: https://ptp.ourpowerbase.net