Alzheimer's Research & Therapy is a new peer-reviewed OA journal published by BioMed Central. See the announcement from December 12, 2008. The article processing charge is £950 (€1100, US$1395), subject to discounts and waiver. Articles are published under the Creative Commons Attribution License.
The Group on Earth Observations is leading the development of a Global Earth Observation System of Systems. Data sharing is part of the plan for GEOSS. The 10-Year Implementation Plan, approved in 2005, lays out these principles: The drafting process is ongoing, with the most recent draft white paper and implementation guidelines on data sharing released in September 2008.
Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services (Nasjonalt kunnskapssenter for helsetjenesten, NoKC) adopted an Institutional Policy for Open Access to Scientific Publications, November 25, 2008. Unfortunately the online version of the policy is an image-scan and I don't have time to rekey an excerpt. However, it is in English. Here's the gist of it:
Damian Thompson, ICEL pulls the plug on free Mass settings, Telegraph , December 5, 2008. (Thanks to Gino D'Oca.) Excerpt: PS: Also see some similar recent incidents, such as Catholic Bishops blocking OA to English translations of public-domain Latin texts or requiring the use of a particular TA edition in mass.
Heather Morrison, Dramatic Growth of Open Access: 2008 Early Annual Edition, Imaginary Journal of Poetic Economics , December 13, 2008.
UKPMC has created an RSS feed of its new deposits.
Iain Emsley has posted the text of Re-use, Remix, Redistribute: Opening Knowledge, a seminar at the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory.
A new issue of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions' Information Technology Section is now available. News topics include ETDs in Nigeria, the Database of African Theses and Dissertations, open bibliographic data, and digital libraries.
Council of the European Union, Conclusions on the definition of a "2020 Vision for the European Research Area", report, adopted at the Competitiveness Council meeting (Brussels, December 1-2, 2008). (Thanks to INIST and Fabrizio Tinti.) Background: The EU is considering adopting a "fifth freedom", the free movement of knowledge within the EU's internal market.
Christian Zimmermann, RePEc and the democratization of research, The RePEc Blog, December 9, 2008.
New York Law School and HIFA2105 launch project on health information and human rights, press release, December 10, 2008.