The November 12 issue of Times Higher Education contains a lengthy feature on OA, as well as an editorial calling for institutional OA mandates: Zoë Corbyn and Matthew Reisz, Learning to share Matthew Reisz, 'Giving it away' a textbook argument Ann Mroz, Put all the results out in the open, editorial

Nature Publishing Group, Open Access uptake prompts 9% price reduction for The EMBO Journal and EMBO reports, press release, November 12, 2009.

Liz Lyon, Open science at web-scale: Optimising participation and predictive potential, report for JISC, November 10, 2009.

Three institutions in Mozambique (the Centro de Formação Jurídica e Judiciária, the Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, and the Universidade Politécnica) launched a consortial IR. Repositories from the eIFL network will be included in the DRIVER infrastructure. A JISC-funded study looks at integration of IRs and library catalogs.

Participants in the Free Culture Forum (Barcelona, October 29-November 1, 2009) developed this Charter for Innovation, Creativity and Access to Knowledge: Signatories include the P2P Foundation, Consumers International, Electronic Frontier Foundation, David Bollier, Knowledge Ecology International, Free Knowledge Institute, Amelia Andersdotter (Swedish Pirate Party MEP-elect), Creative Commons Spain, and Students for Free Culture.

Rowena Cullen and Brenda Chawner, National Survey: Perceptions of New Zealand Academic Staff Towards Institutional Repositories, September 2009, OARiNZ, September 24, 2009.

Jacqueline Dutton, University's e-press recasts publishing model, The Australian, November 11, 2009.

An English version of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya's OA policy adopted last month makes clear the policy is a mandate. In a commentary for PLoS Biology, David Shulenburger writes that "University Public-Access Mandates Are Good for Science". Stevan Harnad criticizes Columbia University for its announced intention to sign the Compact for Open-Access Publishing Equity without adopting a self-archiving mandate first.

Committee for Economic Development Releases Report on Improving Research, Teaching, and Learning in The Digital Age, press release, November 6, 2009. The report specifically supports the NIH policy, as well as expanding the NIH policy to all non-classified research at other federal agencies. See also our past post on the draft report, released last month.

Alliance for Taxpayer Access, Nobel Prize-winning scientists urge Congress to act to ensure free online access to federally funded research results, press release, November 10, 2009. The number of Nobelist signatories on this letter (41) is an increase from past letters: 33 in 2008, 26 in 2007, and 25 in 2004. The signatories include two of the three 2009 laureates in medicine.

OA journal announcements, conversions, and launches spotted in the past week: The Journal of Aesthetics & Culture is a new peer-reviewed OA journal, now accepting submissions. See the announcement and launch editorial. The journal is published by Co-Action Publishing with financial support from the Swedish Research Council and Stockholm University. AoB PLANTS is a new peer-reviewed OA journal, now accepting submissions.