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

  • Some funders have started [to cover OA fees].
  • Self-archiving costs nothing and is a great way to be open. You have many options, such as through figshare, arxiv, bioRxiv , institutional repositories, and personal websites.
  • There are increasingly more institutional repositories for open data across the globe, including LA Referencia, [[1]], and Redalyc. These repositories also allow you to generate bibliometric and usage data for evaluation at no cost.
  • Document your [[2]]
  • Seek out [for student and early career researchers]

Don't lock up your research!

> * 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

  • Get your department to consider making a pledge similar to that of American Society for Cell Biology’s [[@http://am.ascb.org/dora{%7C

|Declaration on Research Assessment]], which commits to: |- |# 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

> [Access Week]—is organized by the International Open Access Week alliance at the end of October each year. This year was the 7th celebration of Open Access Week.

  • Creative Commons: Use Creative Commons licenses to prevent companies from limiting your potential readership and to protect open access to knowledge for everyone—regardless of their ability to pay.
  • Defending the Knowledge Commons, //Open Democracy.net (Jackie Smith, March 2015)
  • 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. [[3]] Email that doesn’t share your data with advertisers or the NSA: Don’t give in to Google: [[4]] Open source survey program http:opinahq.com/app/c/89004 Meeting/ webinar program: https:ptp.ourpowerbase.net