Information platform open-access.net now online! (fwd)

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 14:54:58 +0100

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 9 May 2007 14:01:10 +0200
From: Anja Kersting <Anja.Kersting--UNI-KONSTANZ.DE>
Subject: Information platform open-access.net now online!

Information platform open-access.net now online!

Open-access.net, an online information platform
on open access issues is going online now. The
Universities of Bielefeld, Goettingen, Constance
and the Free University of Berlin jointly operate
the platform and have received funding from the
German Research Foundation (Deutsche
Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG). The platform
intends to inform on the growing scientific and
political significance of open access issues. At
the German E-Science Conference 2007 hold on 2
May 2007 in Baden-Baden the online information
platform was launched to the public for the first time.

  The new platform enables not only scientists to
gain comprehensive information about open access.
Open access literature is defined as free of
charge for users providing online access to
digital scholarly material worldwide. Since the
<http://oa.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html>Berlin
Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the
Sciences and Humanities in 2003 open access has
gained increasing significance within the
academic world. Various academic institutions,
research funding agencies as well as a growing
number of universities have already signed the
Berlin Declaration. Accordingly, the German
Research Foundation (DFG) encourages scientists
to provide an open access version of the research
it has funded. The publications are either to be
deposited in discipline-related or institutional
electronic archives (repositories) following
conventional publication, or to be published in a
recognised peer-reviewed open access journal.
Meanwhile, the advantages of worldwide free and
unrestricted access to scientific research are
beyond controversy. For researchers, using open
access maximises their research impact, increases
their visibility and raises their reputation.
Users are benefiting from open access as well:
They can access relevant information on the Web worldwide at any time.



Open-access.net is the first online platform
providing information on open access in German
language. Since 2006 the platform has been funded
by the German Research Foundation (DFG)
supporting scientists and research institutions
to implement open access in practice.
Open-access.net offers information on publishing
strategies, costs and legal aspects.
Additionally, it presents convincing arguments
for the use of open access not only for
researchers but also for research institutions,
universities, professional associations, libraries and publishing houses.



The Universities of Bielefeld, Goettingen,
Constance and the Free University of Berlin who
belong to the pioneers of the open access
movement in Germany jointly operate the platform
open-access.net. It is also supported by the
German Rectors' Conference, the Volkswagen
Foundation and the German Initiative for
Networked Information (Deutsche Initiative für
Netzwerkinformation e. V., DINI). Moreover, the
Helmholtz Association (Helmholtz-Gemeinschaft)
and the Max Planck Society
(Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) provide additional
information on their open access policies. An
academic advisory council will regularly evaluate
the platform to meet the needs of researchers.



Open-access.net starts to offer a broad variety
of information materials and practical
assistance. However, discipline-related
information pages are still under construction.
As a result, specific information on open access
is currently not available for every discipline.
But all users are explicitly invited to
contribute to the platform by submitting
additional news, information and suggestions.
Therefore, the category ^ÓNews^Ô will present
submitted contributions and information on new
developments concerning open access that can be
subscribed via RSS-feed. Additionally, a
moderated mailing list will provide an
opportunity to discuss open access issues.





Further Information

Website platform: <http://www.open-access.net>www.open-access.net



Project leader:

Dr. Norbert Lossau (Director of the State and University Library Goettingen)

E-mail: norbert.lossau(at)sub.uni-goettingen.de

Tel.:
[]
[]
0049-(0)551/39-5212
[]
.



Project coordination:

Anja Kersting (Library of the University of Konstanz)

E-Mail: Anja.Kersting(at)uni-konstanz.de

Tel.:
[]
[]
0049-(0)7531/88-2475
[]




Rubina Vock (Center for Digital Systems, Free University of Berlin)

E-Mail: Rubina.Vock(at)fu-berlin.de

Tel.:
[]
[]
0049-(0)30/838-52779
[]





-----------------------------------------------
Anja Kersting
Universität Konstanz - Bibliothek
Projekt Open Access
-----------------------------------------------
Raum B 906
Universitätsstraße 10
78457 Konstanz
Tel.: 07531/88-2475
Fax: 07531/88-3082
E-Mail: Anja.Kersting--uni-konstanz.de
-----------------------------------------------
Informationsplattform Open Access:
http://www.open-access.net
Received on Wed May 09 2007 - 16:20:14 BST

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