Bonnie’s Library Tips

Update: Forestry Journals and Authors Rights

Here is an updated edition of a spreadsheet giving Author-Rights to self-archive pre/post prints in forestry related journals as of September 2009.  Information is from SherpaRoMEO and some website sleuthing.  Feel free to send corrections or additions to me.

Why can’t I see this article!

When you can’t view a journal you used to access, more than likely the cause is temporary, an “e-glitch.”  If this happens, before you assume the worst:

• Contact us at:  valley.reference@oregonstate.edu so we can look into it for you (and fix the problem for everyone).
• If you are looking for a specific article provide that information.

Some common problems stem from getting to the journal website without initiating the library’s e-proxy server – particularly when you are off campus and you must be authenticated as part of the OSU Community covered by our subscription.  For that reason,

• Don’t rely bookmarking a journal website for access beyond viewing abstracts;
• Consider a Google search as a means to identify an article not as a means of viewing it.
• Appreciate those open-access journals that do not rely on licenses.
• Never pay for access to an article… interlibrary loan is free to you.

Do consider bookmarking the following sites:

•  The Library homepage at  http://library.oregonstate.edu/ — this URL will not change and from it you can following the link to
•  The list of E-journal at: http://mw8xt6bj7r.search.serialssolutions.com/ and for questions, 
• Use:  http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/reference/email.htm

You may have heard that the library is cancelling quite a few journal subscriptions in 2009/2011.  We made every effort to NOT cancel highly used journals.   But thresholds of use vary with subscription costs.  The rule of thumb is not to cancel a journal if the “cost per use” has been less than the cost of an average interlibrary loan transaction.  

We hope you will find it a rare occasion when you don’t have access to articles in your favorite journals.  If this happens we will get them for you via interlibrary loan.   To register and read more about  this service go to: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/ill/).

ScholarsArchive@OSU needs your articles!

[Note: content below is excerpted from the OSU IR website.]

In the coming months you may receive an email from your subject librarian asking if we might articles you have written to the ScholarsArchive, your Institutional Repository here at Oregon State University.   These will be cases where the journal publisher explicitly allows you, the author, to “self-archive” their formatted pdf version after a specified period of time. 

The ScholarsArchive is a digital service for gathering, indexing, making available and storing the scholarly work of the Oregon State University community.  It has a 5 year history and is now ranked 5^th in the nation in size.  Extension and Experiment Station Communications is now a leader in participation in this activity, but you as an individual scholar can participate as well.

We encourage you to be proactive and deposit pdfs of your pre-refereed and/or post-refereed articles as well.  As noted in earlier newsletter entries, numerous journals allow this.  If you have any trouble finding out what you can and can’t deposit just contact your subject librarian.

Why bother?  The biggest reason to contribute to an open access institutional repository like the ScholarsArchive is more diverse dissemination.  Your writing will be exposed to a wider audience and to those who don’t have access to a large library and who would otherwise have to pay to read it.   

The work must be in digital form and you must be willing and able to grant to Oregon State University the non-exclusive right to preserve and distribute the work.  But, once deposited, the URL is persistent and will not disappear as happens so often with items merely linked on a web server.

Where will my article reside?  You will find that most departments and/or Colleges are represented by a “community” in the ScholarsArchive.  These articles are contributed to a “research publications” collection within that community.   This is a relatively new activity so those collections may not have many articles in them currently.  It is important to remember that no one will have to know how to get to the article once deposited because Google or any search engine will find it for them.

So make AY 2009/10 the year that you contribute to the ScholarsArchive@OSU — it’s free!           

How green is your journal?

As the author you can assure long term, public access to your scholarly writing.  Ideally, you will be able to find an appropriate, peer-reviewed, open access journal.  The Directory of Open Access Journals can help you assess your options and is online at: http://www.doaj.org/.   

Regardless of where you publish, you should consider depositing a pre-publication version of your article in OSU’s ScholarsArchive. Items in the ScholarsArchive are accessible.  You can then also provide the citation and link to the published version as well.  Some journals allow you to deposit the post-publication/formatted file after a specified time lag.  You can learn more about “self-archiving” at:  http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/jspui/index.jsp.  

If you support a journal with contributions of your time as an editor or for peer review you may want to know if it supports the authors’ right to self-archive.  The Sherpa/RoMEO website, http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo.php provides information on these policies for many journals.  They have developed a four color code for describing copyright transfer agreements with respect to self-archiving:

• Green permits archiving the pre-publication print and post-publication print 
• Blue permits archiving the post-publication print (final draft post-refereeing)
• Yellow permits archiving the  pre-print (i.e. pre-refereeing)
• White permits neither.  

Assuring public access to the scholarly information produced by OSU researchers is largely under your control as author.  At some point in the publishing process, you will be asked to sign a copyright transfer agreement for the journal publisher.  It is true that the formal journal “frame” in which your article appears has value — it indicates peer review for example.   But before you sign away your rights, consider how you might want to re-use that content in the future. 

• Will you be able to revised this article and publish it later a book or as part of a website? 
• Will you retain the right to be informed and/or decline if the publisher wants to re-use your article as a chapter in a book? 

You have choices when negotiating the language of the copyright transfer agreement. You can add an author addendum to publisher’s contract.  Some very helpful models and suggestions for “what to do if” are available from the UC Berkeley Library at: http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/scholarlycommunication/manage_your_rights.html. If you have questions regarding the ScholarsArchive and/or retaining your author rights, contact your subject librarian (http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/staff/collegelibs.htm).  

Resources for everyone:

If you are a resident of Oregon and frequent Corvallis  you can apply for an OSU Community Borrowers Card in order to borrow print materials during your visits to the Valley Library.  Information and a link to the application for this is at: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/circ/comm.html).  While you are here, you also have ‘walk-in” use of our e-resources.   Off-campus use of these resources is limited to current staff and faculty and currently enrolled students of Oregon State University.

We have prepared online guides to free e-resources which we hope will be useful in identifying information on your chosen topic from off-campus.

• Databases available to everyone  includes information on locating open-access journals and databases and is located at:  http://ica.library.oregonstate.edu/subject-guide/386-Databases-available-to-everyone-
• Keeping Current with Research which is provides tutorials on setting up RSS feeds for journals and other suggestions for tracking research and is located at: http://ica.library.oregonstate.edu/subject-guide/611-Keeping-Current-with-Research
• General information about researching a variety of subject areas is available via Subject Research Guides, located at:  http://ica.library.oregonstate.edu/subject-guides/ .  While these guides include reference to the licensed resources they can be useful for their suggestions of public domain resources as well.