International coalition calls on EU to halt “potentially harmful” copyright reform
An international coalition, led by SPARC Europe, is working together to halt the current draft of the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market, which it says could threated Open Access and Open Science. The coalition has written an open letter to the EU’s Legal Affairs Committee which urges the removal of proposals that would restrict access to research and place administrative and legal burdens on institutional repositories. The coalition is also calling for improvements to proposals related to text and data mining, copyright in an education setting, and preservation and access to works for non-commercial endeavours.
Original signatories to the open letter include COAR, Creative Commons, EBLIDA, EIFL, IFLA, LIBER, RLUK and Science Europe. http://sparceurope.org/copyrightreform/
Royal Society of Chemistry partners with Publons to give more recognition to peer reviewers
The Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) has announced a partnership with third-party reviewer recognition service Publons. A twelve month trial on ten RSC journals will mean that reviewers are able to track their verified peer review activity across all participating publishers and journals; view and download their up-to-date reviewer record; receive notification when an article they reviewed is published; and link their record to their ORCID account to show their publication and peer review activity together.
Dr Emma Wilson, RSC Director of Publishing, said: "As an organisation we value the vital role that our reviewers play in ensuring that the work we publish is scientifically rigorous and of high quality. We are excited that our partnership with Publons will provide reviewers with a way to obtain greater recognition for the work they do."
http://www.rsc.org/news-events/articles/2017/sep/publons-partnership2/
De Gruyter launches international science news site
De Gruyter has announced the launch of ‘Science Discoveries’, a news site featuring selected science research published in De Gruyter journals which focuses on research advancements in medicine, health, environment and technology.
The site will publish articles and multimedia content with the aim of reaching an audience of science enthusiasts as well as academics and professionals.
Sections include health and medicine; nature and environment; clinical chemistry; molecular biology; technology and neuroscience.
http://sciencediscoveries.degruyter.com/