Guest lecture: Open Access at the University of Vienna

VO Sharing is daring: Open Science approaches to Digital Humanities

This week we have a a guest speaker: Bernhard Schubert. Please read the lesson script he provided and complete the tasks in preparation for the guest lecture.

Questions, remarks, issues? Participate in the Zoom meeting on Mon, 15.06.2020, 5 p.m. - 6 p.m.!

Mon, 15.06., 16:45 - 18:15: Guest lecture: Open Access at the University of Vienna

Guest speaker: Bernhard Schubert, University of Vienna Open Access Office

In this session we’ll have a closer look at how scholarly publishing works in the 21st century in connection with the idea of opening up access to research output for everyone, everywhere, for free over the Internet. We will look at established business models that the big publishers have been using for decades and see how they can be adapted, changed, or maybe even replaced, and how this can possibly be achieved – and by whom.

Since you may be considering becoming scholars yourselves, we will also talk about the support systems institutions like the University of Vienna have created to help you make your research output openly available at no cost to you. To prepare for this session, I’d like you to read up on a couple of things beforehand so you have a rough idea of some of the topics we’ll touch on and (hopefully) discuss. This shouldn’t take you longer than 15-20 minutes per task, so maybe an hour total.

Task 1

Read and compare the Open Access policies the University of Vienna (here) and the Austrian Science Fund (here) have put forward for researchers.

What is the main difference between them?
Where do you think this difference comes from?

Task 2

Read the University’s funding criteria for Gold OA publications and the requirements for using the University’s publishing agreements.

What purpose do these criteria serve?
Which ones do you agree or disagree with, and why?

Task 3

Read the principles of the Plan S OA initiative and two vocal commentaries on it (here and here).

Do you agree or disagree with the argument that Plan S violates academic freedom? Why?

Reading

Austrian Science Fund: Open Access Policy.
University of Vienna: Open Access Policy.