Supporting DEIA
Elsevier Inclusion & Diversity Data Snapshot
Elsevier, Voting Member, Featured Article, March 8, 2022
Every day, over 8,000 Elsevier employees work with the communities we serve to help deliver data-driven knowledge and insights. We strive to help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve outcomes for the benefit of society. And we also seek to deliver provide an inclusive, diverse and equitable workplace so our people can thrive and grow; we deeply believe it is the right thing to do.
Studies also show that workforce diversity improves business performance. We know that improving diversity is not an easy task that can be accomplished overnight. Having a vibrant, diverse workplace that reflects the communities in which we live and operate requires commitment, persistence, and the effort of every Elsevier colleague to continually improve our workplace and practices. We all must do our part to tackle systemic inequities, and we are taking action as an organization to drive a multi-year journey toward greater inclusion, diversity and equity.
Open Access, Open Science
University of California and Wiley Partner to Publish More Open Access Research
University of California, L.S.A. Member, and John Wiley & Sons, Voting Member, Press Release, March 14, 2022
The University of California and Wiley today announced an innovative one-year open access agreement pilot for 2022 that will make more of the University’s research available to read and share worldwide.
The agreement brings together UC, which generates nearly 10 percent of all U.S. research output, and Wiley, which publishes nearly 2,000 peer-reviewed journals, to advance a sustainable transition to open access.
Under the pilot agreement, which covers articles published from January 1 to December 31, 2022, Wiley will make open access the first-choice option for articles by authors at five UC campuses — Irvine, Merced, Riverside, Santa Barbara, and Santa Cruz. For authors at those five campuses who publish in Wiley journals, the UC libraries will automatically cover the first $1,000 of the article publication charge (APC) and authors will be asked to pay the balance; those who do not have research funds available can request full funding of the APC from the libraries. The pilot allows UC and Wiley to test new processes and models and will help with product development before exploring potential future expansion to the entire UC system.
UW Libraries to Launch Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education
University of Wyoming Libraries, L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, March 14, 2022
University of Wyoming Libraries soon will launch the Journal of Open Educational Resources in Higher Education (JOERHE), a new, open peer-reviewed journal.
The journal is currently accepting scholarly articles that critically analyze the role of open educational resources (OER) in higher education for its debut issue. The journal is anticipated to launch this fall.
Development and implementation of OER in higher education are expanding rapidly as colleges and universities seek to ease the financial burden experienced by students. According to Achieving the Dream’s 2020 study on the academic and economic impacts of one specific OER initiative, student savings averaged $65 or more per student per OER course.
Emory Libraries announce open access publishing agreement with Cambridge University Press
Emory University Library, L.S.A. Member, and Cambridge University Press, Voting Member, News Announcement, March 10, 2022
Emory University researchers can publish their work “open access” in all Cambridge University Press journals without paying a publishing cost, thanks to an agreement between Emory Libraries and Cambridge University Press.
Open-access journals don’t charge libraries or readers to access their articles. Instead, they pass along the cost to authors through an article-publishing fee that can range from $500 to more than $10,000. The agreement with Cambridge University Press exempts Emory researchers from paying that fee.
Partnerships & Collaborations
Wolters Kluwer partners with Women’s Dermatologic Society to publish International Journal of Women’s Dermatology
Wolters Kluwer, Voting Member, News Announcement, March 10, 2022
Wolters Kluwer, Health announced today that it will publish International Journal of Women’s Dermatology (IJWD) under its Lippincott open access portfolio as part of its new partnership with the Women’s Dermatologic Society (WDS).
Launched in 2015, International Journal of Women’s Dermatology is an open access journal focused on dermatologic medical, surgical, and cosmetic issues faced by female patients and their families. It publishes peer reviewed original research, review articles, unusual case reports, new treatments, clinical trials, education, mentorship, and viewpoint articles. IJWD serves a broad clinical audience, including dermatologists, family practitioners, pediatricians, gynecologists and obstetricians, plastic surgeons, rheumatologists, and pharmacologists.
KU Libraries reach agreement with the Public Library of Science to waive author fees for KU researchers
University of Kansas Libraries, L.S.A. Member, and Public Library of Science (PLOS), Voting Member, News Announcement, March 9, 2022
KU Libraries has joined a partnership with the Public Library of Science (PLOS) that waives author fees for Lawrence campus researchers.
Normally, the cost to publish in PLOS journals ranges from $800 to $5,300 per article, depending on the journal. The agreement waives fees for all PLOS journals for Lawrence campus corresponding authors. Fees are waived for KU Medical Center corresponding authors in PLOS Medicine, PLOS Biology, and PLOS Sustainability and Transformation under a previous agreement. The agreements also offer a 25% discount to contributing authors from both KU’s Lawrence campus and KUMC for those titles.
Libraries, Collections, & Archives
Penn Libraries Unearths Dissertation of Trailblazing 19th Century Physician M. Alice Bennett
University of Pennsylvania, L.S.A. Member, Blog Post, March 16, 2022
The University of Pennsylvania plays a major role in the preservation and documentation of the history of women in medicine, and the Penn Libraries recently located and digitized a record that tells an important part of this story. The dissertation of M. Alice Bennett, the first woman to receive a degree from Penn, sheds light on her medical interests as a student at Penn’s School of Auxiliary Medicine before she began a trailblazing career in psychiatry and women’s health care.
Eric Dillalogue, Assistant Director of Operations at the Kislak Center, tracked down this historic document after learning about its existence from Dr. Kenneth J. Weiss, the Robert L. Sadoff Clinical Professor of Forensic Psychiatry in the Perelman School of Medicine. Weiss has studied Bennett’s career and work since 2013 and has written numerous papers about her contributions to the field of psychiatry and the treatment of female mental patients.
New Project Will Unlock Access to Government Publications on Microfiche
Internet Archive, Voting Member, Blog Post, March 15, 2022
Government documents from microfiche are coming to archive.org based on the combined efforts of the Internet Archive and its Federal Depository Library Program library partners. The resulting files will be available for free public access to enable new analysis and access techniques.
Microfiche cards, which contain miniaturized thumbnails of the publication’s pages, are starting to be digitized and matched to catalog records by the Internet Archive. Once in a digital format and preserved on archive.org, these documents will be searchable and downloadable by anyone with an Internet connection, since U.S. government publications are in the public domain.
Leadership Opportunities
Elaine Westbrooks named Carl A. Kroch University Librarian
Cornell University Library, L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, March 4, 2022
Elaine L. Westbrooks, vice provost and university librarian at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has been named the next Carl A. Kroch University Librarian. The appointment, effective July 1, was made by Provost Michael Kotlikoff and approved by the Executive Committee of the Cornell Board of Trustees.
For Westbrooks – who is deeply committed to making scholarly publications more accessible and sustainable and to advancing diversity, equity and inclusion – the appointment marks a return to Cornell, where she worked as a metadata librarian for eight years.
Research Efforts
Nature Portfolio to expand with three new journals in 2023
Springer Nature, Voting Member, Press Release, March 18, 2022
Three new Nature journals are to launch in 2023 as publisher Springer Nature continues to reflect the needs of research communities through its Nature portfolio. With the first issues due in January 2023, Nature Mental Health, Nature Water and Nature Reviews Bioengineering will have multi-disciplinary scopes and offer a new avenue for publication of the latest research discoveries that are impacting some of the challenges the world is facing.
Like all Nature-branded journals, the new launches will be overseen by a team of professional editors who oversee the careful selection, commissioning, fair and rigorous peer-review, accurate editing, rapid publication and broad dissemination of primary research and/or commissioned content.
Financials, Mergers and Acquisitions
U-M issues $2B in bonds for future capital projects
University of Michigan Library, L.S.A. Member, News Announcement, March 10, 2022
The University of Michigan has successfully issued $2 billion in bonds to finance planned future construction and renovation projects, including $1.2 billion as a century bond, the largest of its kind ever issued in the higher education sector.
The deal marks the university’s first issuance of a century bond, which is structured to be repaid in 100 years instead of the more traditional 30 years.
Association of Research Libraries Releases Annual Report 2021
Association of Research Libraries (ARL), Voting Member, News Announcement, March 9, 2022
Today, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) released our Annual Report 2021, which highlights our collective accomplishments advancing research, learning, and scholarly communication, in alignment with our 2021–2022 Action Plan.
On reflection, 2021 represents a year in which ARL member institutions, like so many other organizations, faced daunting operational and strategic challenges resulting from COVID-19 and its reverberations, political polarization, ongoing mis/disinformation, and persistent violence against BIPOC peoples. In the evolving context, ARL came together virtually and strengthened through informal conversations, Association Meetings, and the largest number of attendees ever at the Fall Forum. We welcomed two new member institutions and engaged even more research library and archives employees in our Action Plan priorities and work.