News

This article explores the Iowa State library's approach to author equity during a rapidly evolving moment in open access and scholarly communication.

Read the full release on OpenISU.

With a commitment from President Wendy Wintersteen, Iowa State University is now a member of Higher Education Leadership Initiative for Open Scholarship (HELIOS). The work of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Aligning Incentives for Open Science led to the creation of this community of practice around open science. The HELIOS initiative launched earlier this year and has over 80 current college and university members.

Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles, coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment. - Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)

Open Access Week is Oct. 24-30, 2022, and the theme is Open for Climate Justice. Celebratewith the Iowa State University Library. The embedded graphic, Open Access by the Numbers, presents updated statistics about how your library supports open resources.

The Iowa State University Digital Press, a unit of the Iowa State University Library, aims to publish high quality scholarship in the areas reflected in Iowa State’s curricular and research offerings, tell stories of Iowa and the Midwest, and diversify the voices in the scholarly record. Over the past year, the Digital Press published journals, conference proceedings, and open textbooks, and digitally published books that were previously published only in print. New publications from the Digital Press include: 

In 2021, the Iowa State University Library passed a new Open Access Commitment, replacing an outdated document with one that better supports the diverse range of work done by the library staff at Iowa State University. Read the post now.

This spring, Open Access Librarian Abbey Elder will be hosting three workshops for faculty interested in learning more about OER or creating OER themselves.

All workshops will be provided via Zoom. An overview of the workshops is provided below: 

Join the Iowa State University Library this October for a week full of Open Access (OA) events and workshops. Attendees will network with OA campus leaders, learn about available channels to publish work openly, and discover free services that can help guide them on the path to open scholarship. Whether you’re an OA all-star or just getting started, OA Week will equip you with a wealth of information and resources you need to succeed.

Check out the events below and mark your calendars! All events are open to faculty, staff, students and the public.

Scholarly publishing—the production of journals and books—is a large industry with many universities, scholarly societies, and nonprofit and for-profit publishers involved. The groups with the most money and influence in this system favor research initiatives and academics from the Global North (primarily North America and Europe).

Cover of 그래서 더 좋은 것 같아 / Even Better. Iowa State University Digital Press.

For the sixth consecutive year, the majority of scholarly outputs coming from Iowa State University have been published Open Access (OA), making these works freely available for anyone in the world with an internet connection. This rise in researchers making their work open is in accordance with Iowa State University’s land-grant mission to create, share, and apply knowledge to make Iowa and the world a better place. Further, it reflects the growing support available for OA at Iowa State University. 

Figure 1

A new campus wide mailing list to support open access - publishing, educational materials, and data - is now available. The mailing list will help connect ISU students and staff with peers and experts across campus. 

Join or manage your account at: https://mailman.iastate.edu/mailman/listinfo/open-access 

Libraries at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa announce a joint funding opportunity for the creation of Open Educational Resources (OER). This program is open to small teams of faculty, graduate students, and staff at any of the three public universities governed by the Board of Regents, State of Iowa.

The Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication (JLSC) and Iowa State University Digital Press are delighted to announce that JLSC has selected the ISU Digital Press as its new publisher. 

The University Library helps researchers get access to articles, books, and other materials needed to complete research projects. Did you know that the library can help you complete and publish your work in innovative ways, too? We’ve outlined a few examples for brainstorming how you can benefit from library services.

1. Put an image on that data

Now in its fourth year of operation, the Miller Open Education Mini-Grant Program encourages instructor innovation in adopting and creating Open Educational Resources (OER), “educational materials (textbooks, syllabi, videos, software, and more) that are free of cost and access barriers, and which also carry legal permission for open use.” The implementation of OER at Iowa State University has saved students more than half a million dollars during the 2020/2021 academic year.

The Iowa State University Library has signed on in support of the Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR)'s response to the Data Repository Selection: Criteria that Matter initiative. This response addresses the concern that the Criteria that Matter guidelines put the interests of journals and publishers before those of authors and the institutions that own and manage data.