Open access and promotion and tenure evaluation plans at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire

Department and program evaluation plans at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire were examined to see if these documents provide evidence that could be used to justify supporting the publication of peer-reviewed open access articles toward tenure and promotion. In an earlier study, the authors reveal that faculty members at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire are more unaware of open access publishing than their counterparts at larger universities. These findings dovetail with other studies that show that faculty members are reluctant to publish in open access journals because of concerns about the quality of those journals. The existing body of scholarship suggests that tenure-line faculty fear publishing in open access journals because it could adversely impact their chances of promotion and tenure. The authors of this current study sought to determine if department and program evaluation plans could influence negative perceptions faculty have of open access journals. The implications of this study for librarians, scholarly communication professionals, tenure-line faculty, departments, and programs are addressed

Impact of a Plasmodium falciparum AMA1 Vaccine on Antibody Responses in Adult Malians

Apical Membrane Antigen 1 (AMA1) of Plasmodium falciparum merozoites is a leading blood-stage malaria vaccine candidate. Protection of Aotus monkeys after vaccination with AMA1 correlates with antibody responses.A randomized, controlled, double-blind phase 1 clinical trial was conducted in 54 healthy Malian adults living in an area of intense seasonal malaria transmission to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the AMA1-C1 malaria vaccine. AMA1-C1 contains an equal mixture of yeast-expressed recombinant proteins based on sequences from the FVO and 3D7 clones of P. falciparum, adsorbed on Alhydrogel. The control vaccine was the hepatitis B vaccine (Recombivax). Participants were enrolled into 1 of 3 dose cohorts (n = 18 per cohort) and randomized 2:1 to receive either AMA1-C1 or Recombivax. Participants in the first, second, and third cohorts randomized to receive AMA1-C1 were vaccinated with 5, 20 and 80 microg of AMA1-C1, respectively. Vaccinations were administered on days 0, 28, and 360, and participants were followed until 6 months after the final vaccination. AMA1-C1 was well tolerated; no vaccine-related severe or serious adverse events were observed. AMA1 antibody responses to the 80 microg dose increased rapidly from baseline levels by days 14 and 28 after the first vaccination and continued to increase after the second vaccination. After a peak 14 days following the second vaccination, antibody levels decreased to baseline levels one year later at the time of the third vaccination that induced little or no increase in antibody levels.Although the AMA1-C1 vaccine candidate was well-tolerated and induced antibody responses to both vaccine and non-vaccine alleles, the antibody response after a third dose given at one year was lower than the response to the initial vaccinations. Additionally, post-vaccination increases in anti-AMA1 antibody levels were not associated with significant changes in in vitro growth inhibition of P. falciparum.ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00343005

Struggle and Survival in a Foreign Land : the Immigrant Experience of Anders Lian

Throughout out the nineteenth century thousands of immigrants arrived in the United States. Many of these immigrants hoped to improve their lives by establishing themselves in America. Anders Lian, a youthful immigrant from Norway, arrived in the United States in early 1890. Anders Lian, like many other immigrants, envisioned America as a land of prosperity and hoped that living in America would also bring him a degree of success. However, as Anders Lian discovered, the United States in the 1890s brought struggle along with success. The letters of Anders Lian, preserved for over a century by his relatives in Norway, present a tale of struggle, survival, and hope for a new life in America. Through his letters a detailed account of life in a Midwestern city in the 1890s emerges, along with an understanding of the United States during the 1890s

Know Your Rights: Publishing and Author Agreements

Presentatio

The Veda Stone Papers : Collaborating on a Digital Finding Aid

Color poster with text, images, charts, and photographs.The purpose of this project was to have an organized method in which researchers would be able to sort and find data easily within the many primary sources left by Veda Stone. Veda Stone was a remarkable woman who through her work was able to bring aid and different programs to American Indians. The McIntyre Library was fortunate to be given the collection of Veda Stones work and personal notes. Having an organized calendar of Veda Stone’s work gives researchers the opportunity to explore the immense impact that Veda Stone had locally. The Veda Stone calendar was created out of collaborative work conducted by twenty-seven researchers. Each researcher went through one box of the Veda Stone Papers collection and documented what was in each box. Next the individual research was combined into one digital calendar archiving the contexts of the Veda Stone Papers collection. The completed digital calendar will allow researchers to efficiently conduct research through the expansive Veda Stone collection. Furthermore, now that the Veda Stone Papers collection has been digitized more research, papers, presentations, and projects can be done on the immense work that Veda Stone conducted in Eau Claire.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program

Vote : The 19th Amendment and the Chippewa Valley Faculty Mentors : Curating a Virtual Exhibit

Color poster with text, images, photographs, and graphs.The Chippewa Valley is filled with stories of women who fought for their right to vote in the early 1900s. Through diaries, newspapers, oral histories, and letters, our research team created a virtual exhibit. This exhibit explores these important stories by examining the local people and moments connected to this era in our history. This virtual exhibit broadened existing research on women’s studies and the 19th Amendment, with the focus being on the Chippewa Valley.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Program

Making the Lucy Hastings Letters Digital : Crowd-Sourcing, Indexing Texts, and Timeline-Building

Color poster with text, images, and bar graph.The terms “digitize” and “digital” are ubiquitous in today’s tech world. History and the humanities are part of that world. The term “digitize” in the humanities means simply to reproduce in electronic form a document or set of documents. One of the most valuable manuscript collections in the Area Research Center is the Lucy Hastings Collection of letters. Lucy Hastings migrated to Eau Claire in the 1850s and wrote letters to her family in Massachusetts. The letters have been transcribed and scanned for easier access, but no other computer enhancement has been added. The term “digital,” when used in history scholarship, means to make use of computers and software to allow for a deeper understanding of a digitized text. This faculty/student research collaboration uses computers and software to allow scholars a deeper understanding of the Lucy Hastings Letters. Students in History 288 have constructed an index to the 23 transcribed and digitized letters for subjects discussed and for proper names mentioned. They have also built a digital timeline to identify change over time in the correspondents listed in the letters and some of the most important topics discussed.University of Wisconsin--Eau Claire Office of Research and Sponsored Programs