OA news.....

Faculty in the School of Education at Stanford University unanimously adopted a policy requiring all their scholarly work be made available free to the public.

complete article and more news at SPARC http://www.arl.org/sparc/innovator/stanford.shtml

In February Harvard University Faculty of Arts and Sciences voted to give the University a worldwide license to make each faculty member's scholarly articles available and to exercise the copyright in the articles, provided that the articles are not sold for a profit.

For more information about Open Access publishing see:
http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm


CCAHTE, The Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education Journal is the international and interdisciplinary peer reviewed open access journal of the creative arts in health, training and education.

Open Medicine Benefit November 21, 2007, Toronto

OPEN MEDICINE BENEFIT

It is our pleasure to invite you to a benefit evening for Open Medicine, Canada's new peer-reviewed open-access general medical journal. Open Medicine was launched in April 2007 by a group of volunteer medical doctors and editors who wished to set a new standard for independence and access to medical research.

On NOVEMBER 21, 2007, we will be celebrating the journal's remarkable success to date and raising awareness and support for this bold initiative.

Please join Open Medicine for

A BENEFIT EVENING FOR OPEN MEDICINE (reception & dance)

TIME: 8:00 - 11:00 PM

LOCATION: The Common Room, Massey College, 4 Devonshire Place, Toronto

COST: $25

Dr. Richard Smith, former Editor-in-Chief of the British Medical Journal and author of The Trouble with Medical Journals (2006) will be in attendance, as will Open Medicine's Editorial Team, Editorial Board and Board of Directors. There be live music featuring Tony and the Hegemones, including band member John Willinsky, Open Medicine's publisher and a prominent open-access advocate.

Registration is required.

Please visit: http://ombenefit.eventbrite.com/ or contact Lindsay Borthwick at 416-534-5562; lborthwick@openmedicine.ca..

CAN THE PUBLIC TRUST MEDICAL JOURNALS?

A Conversation with Dr. Richard Smith. Hosted by Dr. John Hoey, a founding editor of Open Medicine and former Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal.

TIME: 6:30 pm (sharp)

LOCATION: George Ignatieff Theatre, Trinity College, 15 Devonshire Place, Toronto

COST: Free Registration is required.

Please visit: http://openmedicine.eventbrite.com/.

We would sincerely appreciate your attendance in support of Open Medicine and its efforts to advance medical publishing. Tax-deductible donations will also be welcomed.

Best regards,Anita Palepu, MD, MPH, FRCPC

Stephen Choi, MD, FRCPC Co-editors, Open Medicine

More News at Open Medicine website: http://www.openmedicine.ca

CIHR Supports Open Access to Funded Research with New Policy

Open Access News
CIHR Press Release Sept. 07

Ottawa (September 4, 2007) - ....the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) unveiled a new policy to promote public access to the results of research it has funded. CIHR will require its researchers to ensure that their original research articles are freely available online within six months of publication.

"Timely and unrestricted access to research findings is a defining feature of science, and is essential for advancing knowledge and accelerating our understanding of human health and disease," stated Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. "With the development of the internet it is now feasible to disseminate globally and easily the results of research that we fund. As a publicly-funded organization, we have a responsibility to ensure that new advances in health research are available to those who need it and can use it - researchers world-wide, the public and policy makers."

In developing its policy, CIHR struck a broadly representative national task force of leading researchers, chaired by Dr. James Till of the Princess Margaret Hospital. CIHR consulted widely with Canadian researchers and stakeholders in government, research, publishing and the library communities. CIHR also looked to the experiences of funding agencies in other countries who have established similar policies. The consultation process was thorough and carefully planned in order to preserve academic freedom while promoting the value of public access.

"This open access policy will serve as a model for other funding agencies," said Dr. James E. Till of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto. "The policy will leverage taxpayers' investment by accelerating research and by fostering its broader application."

Under this new Policy, which will apply to all grants awarded after January 1, 2008 that receive funding in whole or in part from CIHR, grant recipients must make every effort to ensure that their peer-reviewed research articles are freely available as soon as possible after publication.

This can be achieved by depositing the article in an archive, such as PubMed Central or an institutional repository, and/or by publishing results in an open access journal. A growing number of journals already meet these requirements and CIHR-funded researchers are encouraged to consider publishing in these journals. Additionally, grant recipients are now required to deposit bioinformatics, atomic, and molecular coordinate data, as already required by most journals, into the appropriate public database immediately upon publication of research results.

This policy builds on other important initiatives to promote openness and transparency of CIHR-funded research such as the registration of clinical trials and randomized controlled trials.

More info. at http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/34851.html

Introduction to Open Access http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/brief.htm

CCAHTE Journal is a Canadian based international and interdisciplinary open access and peer reviewed journal of the creative arts in health, training and education accessible worldwide.

CCAHTE Journal Advisory Board http://ccahtecrossingborders.blogspot.com/2007/06/ccahte-journal-advisory-board-welcomes.html

Social Work Research and Arts, New Initiative University of Toronto

Movement in Arts Research in Canada Gains Momentum
Visionary Initiative Underway in Arts
and Social Work Research
University of Toronto

CCAHTE Journal , (Canadian Creative Arts in Health, Training and Education ), Advisory Board has among its members leaders across disciplines in research, arts, health, training and education. We will be introducing our board members over the coming weeks offering some insight into their projects, research and ongoing work at the intersections of the arts, humanities and sciences.

The following article introduces the work of CCAHTE Advisory Board member Professor Adrienne Chambon.


Professor Adrienne Chambon, Faculty of Social Work,
University of Toronto, has particular interests in institutional
arrangements and subjectivities, critical theory and
developing social science knowledge through the arts.
In a recent article on "Social Work and the Arts" she spoke
about the new initiative at The University
of Toronto, "The Arts and Social Work Research Initiative"
and progressive new advances in arts research in Social Work and
the health sciences.

"More and more our faculty and students have been
making use of the arts in their projects...and we
wanted to build on the momentum and create a
catalyst for this kind of activity. Dr. Chambon
founded the Arts and Social Work Research Initiative
along with Professors Ernie Lightman and Izumi Sakamoto.
"This is the first time a school of Social Work has formalized
the trend to incorporate an arts-based approach
in research. It's a trend not only in
Social Work but also in the health sciences...
we're establishing the faculty as a leader in
this emerging area."

Already three faculty members have received funding
for major arts based research projects and important
new collaborations are underway.

Read more at http://www.socialwork.utoronto.ca/docs/File/Reach_Spring_07.pdf


And today FYI....more Open Access News:
Read "Why Open Medicine?"by James Maskalyk MD,
Faculty of Medicine,
University of Toronto http://www.openmedicine.ca/article/view/74/3
"Open Medicine" Editorial Vol 1, No. l (2007)


OA related QUOTES OF NOTE:

CIHR, Canadian Institutes of Health Research"The mandate of CIHR, as stated in the CIHR Act is: to excel in the creation of new knowledge and its translation into improved health for Canadians, more effective health services and products and a strengthened Canadian health care system.""....CIHR has a fundamental interest in ensuring that research outputs are available to the widest possible audience.CIHR's policy promoting access to research outputs rests on the foundation of the CIHR Act and reflects the core values articulated in CIHR's Blueprint for Health Research and Innovation, the organization's strategic plan, which states that:"the primary purpose of all research in the public domain is the creation of new knowledge in an environment that embodies the principles of freedom of inquiry and unrestricted dissemination of research results."

And from SSHRC, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada;"Today new information and communication technologies are beginning to change the way research results are published and disseminated. Open access journals published online made available to the reader without charge are allowing for increased and more broad based and efficient access to scholarly literature, and ultimately, knowledge."

What is Open Access?

“By open access......we mean
it's free availability on the public internet,
permitting any users to read, download,
copy, distribute, print, search, or link to
the full texts of these articles, crawl them
for indexing, pass them as data to software,
or use them for any other lawful
purpose, without financial, legal,
or technical barriers other than those
inseparable from gaining access to the internet
itself. The only constraint on reproduction
and distribution, and the only role for
copyright in this domain, should be to
give authors control over the integrity
of their work and the right to be properly
acknowledged and cited."
Budapest Open Access Initiative
Source: http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/boaifaq.htm


Open Access journals are now part of the
revolutionary and historic changes currently
underway in academic publishing, with the
potential to offer world wide dissemination
to diverse, cross disciplinary and international
audiences on an unparalleled scale.
We believe this holds true for journals
in medicine and science and for progressive,
high quality and accessible electronic
journals in the humanities as well as those
in the creative arts, health,
training and education.

C. McLean, Publisher CCAHTE Journal
The interdisciplinary journal of the creative arts
in health, training and education.
http://www.cmclean.com/

CCAHTE Supports Open Access Model New Canadian Open Access Journal Launched Congrats to Open Medicine

New open-access medical journal to be launched
Updated Wed. Apr. 18 2007 7:44 AM ET
Canadian Press

TORONTO -- A new Canadian open-access medical journal is about to be born.
Open Medicine, to be officially launched Wednesday, was conceived in the bitter aftermath of the February 2006 firing of the editor and deputy editor of the Canadian Medical Association Journal. The publication's business model differs greatly from standard medical journals. It will be available online only, will have no subscription fees, and no corporate or medical association ownership. It won't accept advertisements for medical devices and drugs -- the major advertisers in traditional journals. And in the first year at least, it won't charge authors the publication fees on which other open-access journals rely.
That all adds up to a modest, at best, potential revenue stream. Co-editor Dr. Anita Palepu admitted Tuesday that the word "utopian'' has come up when she talks about the project with her husband. She insisted, however, that the Open Medicine team is committed to producing a high quality, independent journal that is available to anyone who wants to read it, a journal that can't run afoul of the interests of corporate owners or the politics of an organization like the Canadian Medical Association.
"It has been hard work. But as the launch is approaching, our commitment is actually expanding. We're not feeling like it's waning,'' said Palepu, who was one of a number of former CMAJ editors and editorial board members to resign in protest over the firing of Dr. John Hoey and Anne Marie Todkill.
"We're passionate about this. I'm not sure how far passion will take us, but I just have this sense that we're on the cusp of this broader social movement about the whole open-access initiative and about accountability. I think people are sick and tired of having everything messaged for a political gain.''
Many of the people who had made the CMAJ one of the world's top five general medical journals, including Hoey and Todkill, are involved in Open Medicine.
The reason for the firings was never made public. The two editors were bound by a confidentiality agreement they'd been required to sign and the CMA said it too was constrained from revealing the reason for the dismissals.
But it was widely known Hoey and his team had had a series of run-ins with the holding company that published the journal for the CMA, including over a news article that was critical of the way pharmacists were selling the emergency contraceptive drug Plan B.
The CMA has since agreed to maintain a hands-off approach to the CMAJ. But a former editorial board member who is now on the board of Open Medicine said the history of interference at the CMAJ is one of the reasons why Canada needs another medical journal.
"I think that the reality is society and the medical community are better served by having an alternative independent medical journal in Canada to ensure that in fact stories such as last year's emergency contraceptive story don't get suppressed and that there is an alternative for those to get published and not to be influenced by political agendas of medical societies,'' said Dr. P.J. Devereaux, a researcher based at McMaster University in Hamilton."
Devereaux is also a co-author of one of the first articles to be published in Open Medicine, a value-for-money comparison of the Canadian and American health-care systems. The study, actually a review compiling the results of a number of different studies, found the level of care in Canada was comparable but cost half as much as U.S. care. The new editor of the CMAJ, Dr. Paul Hebert, wished the new publication well on Tuesday -- but demurred when asked if CMAJ was worried about having competition. "I don't consider Open Medicine our competition yet. It may be in five years but my competition is BMJ (the British Medical Journal) and Annals (of Internal Medicine) -- at that level,'' Hebert said from Ottawa.
"Launching a new journal is a huge, huge endeavour. And it takes funds, it takes commitment, full-time faculty and a lot of resources. And it will just be interesting to see how they make all that work. It's just not a small task.''
Most traditional medical journals only make their material available to subscribers, or for a per-item reprint fee -- and both types of fees can be steep. Proponents of open-access journals argue that is a barrier to the dissemination of science, much of which is generated using public funding.
These journals underwrite their costs by charging authors a publication fee which is often covered by research grants. That doesn't mean, though, that authors can simply buy their way to publication. Open-access journals rigorously vet the articles submitted to them, in the same way traditional journals do.Open Medicine will sell advertising, focusing on businesses that might want to sell services to doctors rather than businesses that want to influence the way doctors prescribe drugs or practise medicine.
It is registered as a not-for-profit enterprise and is seeking charitable status. It also hopes to follow in the footsteps of the best known of the open-access journals, the Public Library of Science journals, which were started with a US$9 million endowment.