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 HEP Libraries Webzine
Issue 13 / October 2006

 

Editorial issue 13

Welcome to issue 13 of the HEP Libraries Webzine. We have an issue full of Open Access news once again and it remains one of the hottest topics for physics librarians. Alma Swan has given us a great overview of the progress made by the Open Access movement in the last couple of years and there is plenty to be happy about. But in recent months the excitement has mainly been generated by publishers who are rapidly converting their journals into 'hybrid' titles containing both toll-access articles (only available to subscribers) and open access articles which are free to all because the publishing costs have been paid by the author, or someone on the authors' behalf (see the Webzine's news section for the latest publishers of physics journals to make an announcement). It has been suggested that the Task Force Report on Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics has prompted some of these changes which include backtracks from the views previously expressed by some publishers. With permission from the task force secretariat we have linked to this important report from our site so you can read for yourself what the particle physics community is planning. If the project is successful, it could mean changes for all libraries who currently subscribe to particle physics journals. We will be watching for news in the coming months.

Far from being a step away from repositories, we understand that the change to open access publishing discussed in the report take should take better advantage of available repository technologies and innovations. One such innovation might be connected with the way that impact is measured in the future. Frank Scholze and Susanne Dobratz have been doing their best to move this work forward by getting together technical repository developers to discuss the topic. We are lucky to publish their report of the first of their meetings which took place earlier this year. This is an area to watch — repositories already do more than just store documents but they look likely to have an even more important role in the future.

Discussions about Open Access are usually discussions about journal articles, but we must not forget that any published item can be open access. The JACoW team have set a great example with their publication of proceedings for the major world conferences on accelerator physics. But it has not all been plain sailing - Christine Petit-Jean-Genaz describes some of the hurdles they encountered along the way, and of course, also tells us about the solutions that they found.

All that leaves for us to do is to catch up on the latest at Peter Suber's Open Access News blog http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/fosblog.html

Happy reading, and remember, this webzine's free to read because it's open access!

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Last modified: 29 October 2006