Category Archives: Uncategorized

Wellcome Trust and Michelle Brook say thank you to all who are helping hack the WT APC data and highlight major issues

A mail from Michelle on the OKFN open-access list: Hey all, The Wellcome Trust has just said thank you to the community for the work we’ve been doing on the author processing charge dataset they released: https://twitter.com/wellcometrust/status/451659293801340928:  where WT said:   … Continue reading

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ACSGate: The American Chemical Society spider trap; reactions and warning

DO NOT FOLLOW ANY LINKS IN THIS POST – THEY ARE HIGHLY DANGEROUS The Sydney Funnel-Web spider (Thx: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Atrax_robustus) is among the deadliest in the world. The American Chemical Society’s Spider trap is also deadly. It can cause whole universities … Continue reading

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My talk on #openaccess at University of Leicester 2014-04-04:1300 UTC

I’m talking tomorrow at the University of Leicester in the heart of England. Leicester is where Richard III was recently dug up in car park. But more importantly it’s an excellent University and I have worked with the Biomedical groups … Continue reading

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ACSGate: Pandora opens the American Chemical Society's box and her University gets cut off

  Pandora is a researcher (won’t say where, won’t say when). I don’t know her field – she may be a scientist or a librarian. She has been scanning the spreadsheet of the Open Access publications paid for by Wellcome Trust. It’s … Continue reading

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Lib Dem MEP thinks Net Neutrality will be safe in Europe

This is an example of web democracy in action. I mailed my MEPs yesterday about Net Neutrality and here’s a detailed useful reply. It’s clear my representatives understand my concerns. This is what an Open Neutral Web allows. Dear Mr … Continue reading

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Our planet is dying and publisher Copyright greed is helping to kill it. Why aren't you Angry?

We are all aware (or we should be) of the dire effects of human-made climate change. Two days ago the IPCC issued the starkest warning yet. Climate change is not going to happen. CLIMATE CHANGE HAS HAPPENED AND IS CONTINUING. … Continue reading

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I wrote to my MEPs to preserve Net Neutrality; You can too, it's easy

Net Neutrality is a battle we must win or face Digital darkness for decades or ever. Europe votes this week – YOU must tell your MEPs to vote. Here’s what I wrote using writetothem.org. It took me 10 minutes. (I … Continue reading

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Scholarly Soup Kitchen welcomes new HEFCE OpenAccess repository and Hargreaves Copyright Reforms

I’m thrilled by the following news which appeared early today. For those who don’t know the publishing industry well The Scholarly Soup Kitchen is seen as one of the key commenters on all things scholarly and is widely read for its … Continue reading

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Write to your MEPs to vote to safeguard Open Internet in Europe

I am proud to be a Fellow of the OpenForumAcademy – which promotes openness in IT standards and procurement. We are very concerned about the pressures to lead to two/many-tier Internet access and we urge “Net Neutrality”. Read this and … Continue reading

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UK Copyright reforms set to become Law: Content-mining, parody and much more

I have been so busy over the last few days and the world has changed so much that I haven’t managed to blog one of the most significant news – the UK government has tables its final draft on the … Continue reading

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