Scientific journals, overlays and repositories: a case study of costs and sustainability issues

Publishing scientific research is an area of study that attracts interest from various stakeholders such as publishers, academic and research staff, libraries and funders. In the past decade increased journal subscription fees prompted calls for cheaper and more efficient means of accessing the scientific literature. Factors such as the expansion of digital repositories, the introduction of open source journal management software, an increasing awareness within the scholarly community at large of the issues around open access, and an increasing readiness within the publishing community to experiment with new models, suggest that the circumstances may now be right for new models of scientific publishing to be explored, as well as potential business models and sustainable solutions around them. This paper explores some of the issues around the costs and sustainability of a prospective journal model known as the overlay journal. We present estimates of initial start up costs for such a model, discuss the factors that would influence scientists in deciding whether to publish in a journal overlaid onto a public repository; and report their views on the relative importance of different features and functions of a journal in terms of funding priorities

Exploring aspects of scientific publishing in astrophysics and cosmology: the views of scientists

Scientists in astrophysics and cosmology make much use of the arXiv repository. Concerns raised by scientists in those fields about publication costs and delays, and the transparency and validity of the peer review process, raised questions about levels of satisfaction with existing publishing models. This paper discusses the results from a community survey in the fields of astrophysics and cosmology, conducted as part of an investigation into the feasibility of an "overlay journal" model in these disciplines. Six hundred and eighty three (683) researchers provided information about their academic/research background, their research practices, and their attitudes, both as producers and consumers of information, to the traditional journal publishing system, and gave their reaction to the overlay publication model. The survey results indicate that scientists in these disciplines are, in general, favourably disposed towards new publishing models, although some important caveats and concerns, particularly regarding quality, were highlighted

Investigating overlay journals: introducing the RIOJA Project

Introduces the RIOJA (Repository Interface to Overlaid Journal Archives) project, a 1-year partnership between UCL (University College London), Imperial College London, and the Universities of Glasgow, Cambridge and Cornell. The project will work with the Astrophysics community to investigate aspects of overlay journals. For the purposes of the project, an overlay journal is defined as an open access, quality-assured journal whose content is held on one or more repositories

Publishing scientific research: is there ground for new ventures?

This paper highlights some of the issues that have been reported in surveys carried out by the RIOJA (Repository Interface for Overlaid Journal Archives) project (http://www.ucl.ac.uk/ls/rioja). Six hundred and eighty three scientists (17% of 4012 contacted), and representatives from publishing houses and members of editorial boards from peer-reviewed journals in astrophysics and cosmology provided their views regarding the overlay journal model. In general the scientists were disposed favourably towards the overlay journal model. However, they raised several implementation issues that they would consider important, primarily relating to the quality of the editorial board and of the published papers, the speed and quality of the peer review process, and the long-term archiving of the accepted research material. The traditional copy-editing function remains important to researchers in these disciplines, as is the visibility of research in indexing services. The printed volume is of little interest

The DART-Europe project: towards developing a European theses portal

This paper will report on the new European theses project DART-Europe. The purpose of this project is to align institutional and national e-theses developments across Europe with the wider open archives movement by the construction of a European portal for research theses, thus enabling a global view of European institutional research assets. This project is driven through an innovative partnership between an information provider and an international body of university libraries and open access consortia. The project’s goal is to explore the creation of a European model for the deposit, discovery, use and long-term care of research theses in an open access environment. The paper will outline the projected outcomes of DART-Europe, which is an active group of institutions in addition to a technical service. To this end, DART-Europe is engaged with disciplines and institutions that are widening the definition of research by redefining the formats of theses. For institutions and countries without a repository infrastructure, DART-Europe will enable the creation of a depository. Institutions and countries with a repository infrastructure can engage with DART-Europe to deliver their e-theses. DART-Europe acts as a technology bridge for researchers between those who have existing infrastructures and those who do not. The DART-Europe architecture assumes free at point of use access to full text theses, whether held on the DART-Europe server or by institutional repositories. This paper will provide session attendees with the current progress of this initiative, including a report on the 5 strands of the project, including: architecture; creation of a management tool kit; content acquisition; digital preservation and an investigation of business models

Global Trends in Higher Education Policies

This paper outlines the current global context for higher education in 2015, as a basis for examining the key trends in teacher education in the first decades of the 21st century. The purpose of this paper is to outline the current global contexts for higher education, and to provide an overview of the policies found in teacher education in those countries that consistently produce students who perform highly on International standardized tests such as PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS. The policies guiding teacher education in ‘high-performing' countries tends to be aligned and inter-connected. These policies include public investment in education; creating identifiable career paths in teaching; attracting high-quality applicants; employing effective quality assurance policies and procedures; working in partnership with schools to train teachers; and using research and enquiry as a way to develop an informed, reflective, teaching profession. The paper then identifies broad principles that can be used to inform the development of future teacher education policies.This paper outlines the current global context for higher education in 2015, as a basis for examining the key trends in teacher education in the first decades of the 21st century. The purpose of this paper is to outline the current global contexts for higher education, and to provide an overview of the policies found in teacher education in those countries that consistently produce students who perform highly on International standardized tests such as PISA, TIMSS and PIRLS. The policies guiding teacher education in ‘high-performing' countries tends to be aligned and inter-connected. These policies include public investment in education; creating identifiable career paths in teaching; attracting high-quality applicants; employing effective quality assurance policies and procedures; working in partnership with schools to train teachers; and using research and enquiry as a way to develop an informed, reflective, teaching profession. The paper then identifies broad principles that can be used to inform the development of future teacher education policies

Henneguya sp. in yellowfin goby Acanthogobius flavimanus from the San Francisco Estuary.

Myxozoan spores were observed in yellowfin goby Acanthogobius flavimanus collected from Suisun Marsh, San Francisco Estuary (SFE). Although histopathological changes associated with the parasite were not observed, the spores formed plasmodia that partially blocked the gastric and intestinal mucosa and gut lumen and may affect the perfomance and survival of the yellowfin goby. Morphological features of the spores resembled Henneguya sp. and molecular analysis of the 18S ribosomal DNA (Domain III) confirmed close similarity to H. rhinogobii and H. pseudorhinogobii isolated from the Japanese freshwater goby. The yellowfin goby myxozoan however, is likely an undescribed species based on phylogenetic analysis and morphologic features. Detailed description of vegetative and spore stages are currently lacking for proposal to a new species of Henneguya. A specific PCR test was developed, which confirmed a 100% prevalence of the parasite among randomly collected gobies in group 1 (N = 30) and group 2 (N = 15) at termination of the study at one month in captivity. The myxozoan was also detected from 18 gobies (12%) that died in the first group within two weeks in captivity. Apparently healthy gobies that served as controls did not reveal the presence of the myxozoan by PCR. This study documents the occurrence of a potentially new species of myxozoan in the yellowfin goby and underscores the detection of a parasitic infection in an introduced fish in the SFE. Although the pathogenesis of the myxozoan was not assessed and the prevalence as reported here is restricted to a comparatively small collection site in Suisun slough, the reemergence, identification, and ecological relevance of the parasite on goby populations in the SFE may be investigated in the future using the specific diagnostic tool developed in this study

The Mismatch between Australian Population and General Practice Medical Workforce

Aims: To review and analyse Australian general practitioner's workforce data for the 2000 to 2010 period by comparing this to Australian population trends and to make informed recommendations about GP workforce planning. Study Design: Descriptive analysis of the available Australian government data on GP workforce and the Australian population between 2000 and 2010. Place and Duration of Study: Griffith University, Australia, between April and November 2011. Methodology: Australian GP workforce data for the 2000 to 2010 period was obtained from the Australian Department of Health and Ageing (DoHA) website and population data was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Statistics website. A descriptive analysis of workforce trends using variables of interests such as overseas trained GPs, gender, age, professional services during the 11 year period was compared to population trends data. A new GP Workforce Index ratio (GPWIR = No. of GPs <35yrs 砎o. of GPs 35yrs to 64yrs of age) was derived from the data and calculated for each year of the study period. Results: The ratio of female to male GPs has increased by 35% and the percentage of overseas graduates has increased by nearly 35% in the 11 year period, an indication that the 0.12% number of GPs as a percentage of Australian population between 2000 and 2010 was only sustained by increasing the intake of foreign trained graduates. Vocationally registered GPs have increased by 20% in same period. The GP workforce index ratio (GPWIR) decreased from 0.223 in 2000 to 0.118 in 2007; this was followed by a slight increase from 0.120 in 2008 to 0.128 in 2010. Conclusion: The impact that an increase in the number of female GPs graduating from medical schools may have on the overall number of GP services available to the Australian population requires further study, since it was noted in the literature that female GPs are more likely to work part-time than male GPs. The GPWIR may be a useful indicator for evaluating the proportion of the <35yrs old GPs as a proportion of overall GP workforce. Lower GPWIR may be associated with GP workforce shortage. GPWIR increased in the last 3 years of the study corresponding with an improvement in GP supply. In this study, the GPWIR proved to be more effective in predicting overall National GP workforce shortage trend than the DoHA GP per Population ratio of 0.71:1000 (Primarily used for regional and rural workforce shortage prediction). The Department of Health and Ageing may need to keep supporting rural and remote migration of GPs and also maintain an increase in the number of students entering medical schools.Griffith Health, School of Nursing and MidwiferyFull Tex

Open Access in UCL: a new paradigm for London's Global University in research support

Open Access provides an opportunity for researchers to disseminate their research globally, but it comes with challenges. This article looks at the various ways in which UCL (University College London) has addressed those challenges, by investing in Open Access activities at the university

Correlating bacterial shedding with fecal corticosterone levels and serological responses from layer hens experimentally infected with Salmonella Typhimurium

Salmonella Enteriditis and Salmonella Typhimurium are commonly isolated during egg-related outbreaks of salmonellosis and represent a significant international public health issue. In Australia, Salmonella Typhimurium is the most common serovar identified in egg product related foodborne outbreaks. While a number of studies have investigated Salmonella shedding and host responses to infection, they have been conducted over a short time period. The present study sought to characterise bacterial shedding and host responses to infection in hens infected with only Salmonella Typhimurium or co-infected with both Salmonella Typhimurium and Salmonella Mbandaka over a 16 week period. Salmonella shedding was quantified using the most probable number and qPCR methods and was highly variable over the course of the experiment. On day 1, fecal corticosterone metabolites in birds infected with Salmonella Typhimurium (674.2 ± 109.3 pg/mg) were significantly higher than control (238.0 ± 12.62 pg/mg) or co-infected (175.4 ± 8.58 pg/mg) birds. The onset of lay occurred between weeks 6-8 post-infection (pi) and Fecal corticosterone metabolite (FCM) concentrations increased in both control and co-infected birds. Antibody responses to infection were monitored in both serum and yolk samples. Salmonella Typhimurium specific antibody was lower in co-infected animals than monoinfected animals. Bacterial loads in internal organs were characterised to determine persistence. Spleen, liver and caecal tonsils were positive for bacteria in both groups, indicating that Salmonella was not cleared from the birds and internal organ colonization could serve as a reservoir for continued bacterial shedding.Pardeep Sharma, Vivek V. Pande, Talia S. Moyle, Andrea R. McWhorter and Kapil K. Chousalka