Search
Loading
August 1st, 2023
In collaboration with the university presses and libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA), Purdue University Press has launched the Big Ten Open Books project. Big Ten Open Books creates e-book collections that aspire to the highest standards of discoverability, accessibility, durability, and flexibility, all while being made available to read and download at no cost.
This project furthers Purdue’s long-standing commitment to make information and research widely accessible and the university has contributed a dozen of its open access titles to the initiative. “Purdue University Press is thrilled to join this important collaboration. Our goal is to not only publish high-quality scholarship, but to ensure that scholarship is widely available and easily accessible. We firmly believe knowledge is a public good. The BTAA partnership recognizes that and generously provided the funding to make 100 books open access,” said Justin Race, director of Purdue University Press.
The first 100-title collection is now published and is centered on Gender and Sexuality studies. Many of the works in this collection are being released digitally for the first time. Each title has undergone a rigorous selection and quality certification process that allows readers and users to trust the veracity of the content made available.
The Big Ten Open Books first collection brings to the reader a wide variety of materials in arts, humanities, and social science disciplines that are centered on gender and sexuality themes. The collection’s impact will be seen through its broad sharing of knowledge and high quality scholarship.
Big Ten Open Books creates open content that is immediately and universally available, on open infrastructure, Fulcrum, hosted by the University of Michigan, using open distribution models (including Project Muse, JSTOR, and OAPEN) to envision a robust programmatic future for open monograph publishing.
About Purdue University Press: Founded in 1960, Purdue University Press is dedicated to the dissemination of scholarly and professional information. We publish books in several key subject areas, including Purdue and Indiana, aeronautics/astronautics, the human-animal bond, Central European studies, Jewish studies, and other select disciplines. Learn more about Purdue University Press at press.purdue.edu.
About the Big Ten Academic Alliance: The Big Ten Academic Alliance is the nation’s preeminent model for effective collaboration among research universities. For more than half a century, these world-class institutions have advanced their academic missions, generated unique opportunities for students and faculty, and served the common good by sharing expertise, leveraging campus resources, and collaborating on innovative programs. Governed and funded by the provosts of the member universities, Big Ten Academic Alliance mandates are coordinated by a staff from its Champaign, Illinois headquarters. The fifteen world-class libraries of the Big Ten Academic Alliance members include Indiana University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, Ohio State University, Pennsylvania State University, Purdue University, Rutgers University–New Brunswick, University of Illinois, University of Iowa, University of Maryland, University of Michigan, University of Minnesota, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, University of Wisconsin–Madison, and the University of Chicago.
Learn more about the project and access the first collection here: bigtenopenbooks.org
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, News and Announcements, PurduePress, UncategorizedMay 4th, 2020
The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has brought into sharp focus the importance of access to digital information. Collaboration in a digital environment has become paramount as researchers seek to answer questions about the novel coronavirus. These researchers and scholars need immediate access to research and datasets being used by other scholars in order to build on existing work, to rapidly push the rate of dissemination and discovery for other scholars to keep moving these important efforts forward.
Both higher education as well as K–12 educational institutions throughout the world are closed. Those institutions capable of moving teaching and learning to digital environments have now done so. To meet the needs of online education, dozens of educational companies and publishers have made their content and platforms free.
The idea of providing free access to knowledge is not new. The Budapest Open Access Initiative laid out a way in which new technology could combine with old traditions to “make possible an unprecedented public good. . . . The public good they make possible is the world-wide electronic distribution of the peer-reviewed journal literature and completely free and unrestricted access to it by all scientists, scholars, teachers, students, and other curious minds.”
These words were written in 2002. Since that time, many libraries have sought to make scholarship freely available by participating in the Open Access movement. Open Access can take many forms, from supporting publications that are born open (Gold Open Access) to opening versions of subscription journal articles (Green Open Access). In establishing and maintaining institutional repositories, libraries support Green Open Access—providing free versions of scholarly works that may otherwise require large fees to read. Purdue e-Pubs is the institutional repository of Purdue University, established by Purdue Libraries nearly 15 years ago. In that time, we have published more than 75,000 works, all freely available online to anyone throughout the world. Open scholarship posted to Purdue e-Pubs has been downloaded more than 21 million times, in more than 230 countries. With quarantine and stay-at-home measures in force, the need for access to open works has never been higher. This year, Purdue e-Pubs downloads increased significantly compared to downloads this same time last year: January by 28%, February by 19%, and March by 10%.
Open Access fulfills our land-grant mission by giving back to our community, increasing the pace of research and development, leading to greater access and use of scholarship, and providing needed resources to practitioners and technical workers.
In these unprecedented times, the need for free, immediate access to scholarly literature is more important than ever. The Purdue e-Pubs team is here to help the Purdue community open your work to the world. We provide a free publisher sharing policy review service and will upload works on your behalf. If you would like to participate, contact Nina Collins, nkcollin@purdue.edu, or send a list of publications to epubs@purdue.edu.
Filed under: Open_Access, PurduePressMarch 19th, 2020
Purdue University Press is pleased to offer open access resources made available on Purdue e-Pubs, the open access text repository and publishing platform supported by the Purdue University Libraries.
Here is a brief summary of what is available.
The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research is a book series that presents the finest interdisciplinary research utilizing tools of the C-SPAN Video Library. The most recent volume in the series is President Trump’s First Term: The Year in C-SPAN Archives Research, Volume 5, research addresses Trump’s moral language, his rhetoric on climate change, and his African American support. All volumes are now available open access through Purdue e-Pubs. During Purdue’s 150 Years of Giant Leaps celebration, a selection of books on the history of Purdue were republished and made available for free online. This includes a biography of Purdue’s namesake The Midas of the Wabash: A Biography of John Purdue by Robert C. Kriebel, Purdue’s first president Richard Owen: Scotland 1810, Indiana 1890 by Victor Lincoln Albjerg, and other notable Purdue leaders like Edward Charles Elliott, Educator by Frank K. Burrin and The Hovde Years: A Biography of Frederick L. Hovde by Robert W. Topping.
Other recent books that have been published open access include Transforming Trauma: Resilience and Healing Through Our Connections With Animals edited by Philip Tedeschi and Molly Anne Jenkins, A History of Yugoslavia by Marie-Janine Calic, and Imagining Afghanistan: Global Fiction and Film of the 9/11 Wars by Alla Ivanchikova.
You can view the whole collection of open access books here.
CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture publishes new scholarship in theory and criticism, comparative literature, and cultural studies. First Opinions, Second Reactions (FOSR) fills a void by publishing book reviews that meet the needs of K–12 teachers of language arts, parents and children, and public and school librarians.
The Journal of Aviation Technology & Engineering serves the needs of collegiate and industrial scholars and researchers in the multidisciplinary fields of aviation technology, engineering, and human factors. The Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research is dedicated to addressing the need for increased engineering interest, preparedness, and representation; to transforming P–12 education through the inclusion of engineering curricula; to preparing a globally competitive engineering workforce; and, ultimately, to creating a society of engineering‐literate citizens. You can find the archives of current and former journals here.
A short preview of a majority of new Purdue University Press books is posted here prior the publication date. The preview generally includes the introduction of the book and the first chapter. See all of the previews here.
Filed under: Open_Access, PurduePress
October 25th, 2019
by Beth McNeil, Dean of Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies and Esther Ellis Norton Professor of Library Science
During International Open Access week each year, those who work in libraries around the world lead conversations on our campuses, sparking discussion on the changing nature of scholarly communication and the benefits of open access. We often offer OA-related programming and sometimes celebrate our successes during the past year. This year’s theme, “Open for Whom? Equity in Open Knowledge,” is timely, as conversations have expanded beyond the benefits of open to the challenges of building new systems for sharing that offer full access for all.
Earlier this week here at Purdue, four faculty members from across campus described what “open” means to them during an engaging panel program moderated by Justin Race, director of Purdue University Press. Kris Bross, associate dean for research and creative endeavors, Honors College, and professor of English; Gaurav Chopra, assistant professor of chemistry; Wayne Wright, Barbara I. Cook Chair of Literacy and Language and associate dean for research, graduate programs, and faculty development, College of Education; and Michael Witt, associate professor and interim associate dean for research, Libraries and School of Information Studies, each offered examples of how open scholarship/open science influenced their individual academic work and teaching. Their personal experience, plus comments and questions from the audience, made for a very engaging program.
When I think about what open means to me, I know that I, as a librarian, care deeply about making information available to all who need it. In university research libraries we work hard and, sometimes very creatively, to find ways to meet the information needs of our faculty, students, and campus community. Finding the balance between a scholarly communication ecosystem that I know needs deep and sustained change and meeting day-to-day local research information needs can be challenging and complicated.
Oct. 21-27, 2019, is International Open Access Week. This is part of a series — written by Purdue faculty and staff — that demonstrates the benefits of open access scholarly publishing. For the entire series, visit https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/oaweek19/.
Each year personnel in libraries, including here at Purdue, are forced to make tough decisions regarding which journal subscriptions to renew. Subscription cost increases of 5-7 percent each year are not sustainable, and when major for-profit publishers report profit margins in the 30–40 percent range each year, higher than Apple, Google, and Amazon — it just seems wrong.
I believe the scholarship and data produced by our researchers, scholars, and faculty can change the world, but to do so, it needs to be open and freely available for all. Contracts and licenses with publishers and content providers should be transparent across institutions and equitable for all parties, and the costs of scholarship should be financially sustainable for libraries. Open. Transparent. Sustainable. I don’t think that’s too much to ask.
Learn more about Purdue’s Open Access resources, including Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue’s open access digital repository, at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess.
Filed under: Faculty E-Newsletter, faculty_staff, general, OAWeek19, Open_AccessOctober 24th, 2019
Oct. 21-27, 2019, is International Open Access Week. This is part of a series — written by Purdue faculty and staff — that demonstrates the benefits of open access scholarly publishing. For the entire series, visit https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/oaweek19/.
by Sandi Caldrone, Data Repository Outreach Specialist
Publishing open access data requires imagination. When I review datasets submitted for publication in the Purdue University Research Repository (PURR), I try to put myself in the shoes of a scholar hoping to reuse this dataset, and I try to imagine every question the scholar might have. When you share your data with the world, you open it up to new possibilities—possibilities that are hard to anticipate.
On November 10, 1981, French philosopher Gilles Deleuze gave a lecture on cinema in a Paris university. When he prepared his notes for class that day, he could have had no way of knowing that a student’s audio recording of that lecture, along with dozens of his other lectures, would eventually find their way to the French National Library, and from there to PURR, where anyone can download it to hear his words or text mine the transcriptions.
When Deleuze gave this lecture a little less than 40 years ago, that tape recorder was the most advanced technology in the room. Now, digital humanities students can plug his words into online tools that spin out word clouds, bubble charts, and network graphs. That’s why data curators are always pushing for richer descriptions of data. We want to give future researchers everything they might need to conduct analyses we can’t even imagine yet.
The cycle of imaginative reuse doesn’t have to take forty years. In PURR, we’re already starting to see second-generation open access data—open access data that has been combined, transformed, and republished as a new open access dataset.
As it was in Deleuze’s classroom, it is students who are in the vanguard.
In 2019, PURR has started to see examples of student-faculty collaborations in which students collect data from various open access datasets and put in the labor required to prepare those data for analysis. By publishing their transformed data, they give other researchers the opportunity to pick up where they left off and push scholarship forward, instead of reinventing the wheel. See two excellent examples:
It’s hard to imagine what students might do with data 40 years from now, but I’m really looking forward to finding out.
Explore the Purdue University Research Repository at https://purr.purdue.edu/.
Learn more about Purdue’s Open Access resources, including Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue’s open access digital repository, at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, OAWeek19, Open_AccessOctober 23rd, 2019
Oct. 21-27, 2019, is International Open Access Week. This is part of a series — written by Purdue faculty — that demonstrates the benefits of open access scholarly publishing. For the entire series, visit https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/oaweek19/.
by Erla P. Heyns, Head, Humanities, Social Sciences, Education, and Business Division
Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies
An issue very dear to my heart is providing access to published research for alumni. The professionals who graduate from our universities and enter such fields as veterinary medicine, psychotherapy, social work, and many more have been carefully trained to find and evaluate research literature while they are students. Once they graduate, they are cut off from this access, and they have to depend on employers who might or might not subscribe to certain needed journals. If not, they have to pay, if they are able, for access.
The consequences of deficient access are far-reaching for our society. How can it be acceptable for a veterinarian, for example, not to be able to stay current with the research literature? How can it be acceptable that a psychotherapist has to depend on learning about the latest research only haphazardly, at annual conference presentations, instead of being able to focus on current research in a particular area at the time of need? These critical fields, in which professionals make a significant difference in the lives of their clients, in our lives, typically do not have adequate access to important new research.
The urgency of having a holistic approach to provide access to research for all professionals cannot be overstated. Universities, not just libraries, should tackle the issue with renewed vigor, since we are not only infringing on the lifelong learning opportunities of our alumni, but we are also hurting ourselves and the entire population as consumers of professional care.
There is very little written about this subject in the library research literature, but what is published relates to two different approaches to the problem.
One is to think about alumni as an extension of the university they graduated from and to suggest ways to give them access, perhaps through subscribing on their behalf or providing a service through which they can request an article for a fee or the university will pay the copyright fee.
Another discussion that has been happening at some institutions is to try to convince publishers to create favorable funding models so that alumni can subscribe to journals in their fields of study. This has not been successful, except in very limited instances. Another issue with the solution of individual subscription access is, in most fields, research literature is not just published in a few journals. The problem, of course, is also bigger than just access to the journal literature; journals are indexed in databases that alumni also cannot access. Google Scholar provides valuable access to be able to identify research, but it is by no means comprehensive or complete.
The second context in which this problem is being discussed in the literature is in the context of open access. The benefit of open access is apparent since everyone will be able to access current research. Bruce Symphony, in “Open Access for Scholars Left Behind” (2018), emphasizes the importance of teaching students how to find and cite legitimate open access publications so that they are aware of these resources and are more likely to use them in their professional lives.
Providing access to alumni requires a university community working toward a comprehensive solution, and a main feature of the solution is awareness of and ability to use high-quality, open access material.
Information about other 2019 Open Access Week activities at Purdue is available at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/2019/09/26/oa-week19/.
Learn more about Purdue’s Open Access resources, including Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue’s open access digital repository, at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, HSSE, HSSEB, OAWeek19, Open_Access, scholcommOctober 22nd, 2019
Oct. 21-27, 2019, is International Open Access Week. This is part of a series — written by Purdue faculty — that demonstrates the benefits of open access scholarly publishing. For the entire series, visit https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/oaweek19/.
by Darcy Bullock, Lyles Family Professor of Civil Engineering and Director, Joint Transportation Research Program
The Purdue e-Pubs open access model for publishing Joint Transportation Research Program (JTPR) reports and conference proceedings is widely regarded as a best practice for rapid, cost-effective dissemination to transportation agencies, practicing professionals, and academia. Including JTRP reports, specialty series, and conferences, this open access material has received more than 2.3 million downloads from individuals in 29,000+ institutions, representing 230 countries.
Our partnership with Purdue University Press enables JTRP research to have global impact through the e-Pubs online publishing system. JTRP reports provide a treasure trove of invaluable information for transportation professionals and academia, but were previously buried in the basement of the engineering library [now the Library of Engineering and Science]. To promote knowledge sharing and increase impact, JTRP partnered with Purdue Press in 2011 to modernize report publishing and digitize previous reports.
As an example, when Purdue Civil Engineering Emeritus Professor Sidney Diamond published his report on “Methods of Soil Stabilization for Erosion Control” in 1975, he expected it to be read by state engineers to assist them with improving Indiana’s transportation infrastructure. Today, however, his report has been downloaded 1,883 times, with readers just as likely to be in India, Brazil, and China as in Monticello or Frankfort, Indiana.
Thanks to Purdue e-Pubs, Diamond’s research is helping practitioners worldwide to cheaply and safely reinforce dirt roadways made unstable by heavy rainfall. More recently, Professor Rodrigo Salgado published a technical report entitled “Dynamic Cone Penetration Test (DCPT) for Subgrade Assessment” in 2003 that has been downloaded more than110,000 times.
These examples show how making JTRP research openly and freely accessible online increases the value of the state’s investment in transportation research, while providing worldwide impact.
In addition to technical reports, JTRP publishes a variety of conference proceedings on e-Pubs. One example is the Purdue Road School Transportation Conference and Expo, produced in collaboration with the Indiana Local Technical Assistance Program, which attracts more than 3,000 attendees annually.
Approximately 4,000 Road School presentations and proceedings have been posted on e-Pubs. These publications have been downloaded more than 447,000 times, extending the impact of Road School well beyond the conference attendees. Downloads for Purdue Road School have exceeded 131,000 in just the past year. We are particularly pleased by the magnitude of these Road School downloads, as approximately 65% are from government agencies and private sector companies. This demonstrates the impact the scholarly work is having on government and private sector entities.
Information about other 2019 Open Access Week activities at Purdue is available at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/2019/09/26/oa-week19/.
Learn more about Purdue’s Open Access resources, including Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue’s open access digital repository, at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, OAWeek19, Open_AccessOctober 21st, 2019
Oct. 21-27, 2019, is International Open Access Week. This is part of a series — written by Purdue faculty — that demonstrates the benefits of open access scholarly publishing. For the entire series, visit https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/category/oaweek19/.
by Monica Cardella and Senay Purzer, School of Engineering Education, Purdue University
As editors, we have had countless conversations with prospective authors and other colleagues about the model used for the Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER): an online, open access, common good journal. Free for readers to access articles, free for authors to publish their work. What? Free for readers and free for authors? How is that possible?
It’s possible because of the commitment of the University and the University Press—it is not possible to maintain a reputable journal without any costs, but through the commitment of Purdue’s School of Engineering Education, Purdue University Press, Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies, authors and readers are not limited in their ability to access and publish papers.
Even more important, however, is the question of why.
Open access journals reach those readers who most benefit from the research in those journals: J-PEER disseminates research findings from studies of engineering learning in pre-college settings. This includes studies of how children learn engineering in elementary school classrooms, how teachers learn to teach engineering, how people learn engineering in museums and through “maker” activities. Some studies focus on broadening participation in engineering; others focus on how we measure or assess what children or teachers have learned.
While many of our readers are other researchers who learn from the articles we have published in order to advance their own research, the fact that J-PEER is an online, open access journal means that teachers, museum exhibit designers, afterschool program managers, parents, superintendents, and the general public have access to this research. For us—as not only journal editors, but also as researchers—this resonates with a core commitment of our research—that it not only benefits the research community, but also has the potential to impact practice.
Open access journals help accelerate the growth of our field. For us as scholars in the field of pre-college engineering education research, we also believe that the open access model supports our growing field. The journal started eight years ago in 2011, when the field of pre-college engineering education research was still “young” and emerging. At the time we were members of the original editorial board, under the leadership of the founding editor, Johannes Strobel. We joined the editorial board for the same reason he started the journal: a way to support the growth of this field. The hope was we could provide a venue for scholars to publish their work and a way for people to quickly learn about other work underway in this interdisciplinary, emerging area.
Open access journals foster global impact of research. Research in engineering education tends to concentrate on specific regions of the world, where universities can afford to fund robust databases and high invoices from journal publishers. J-PEER is able to reach a wide global readership that would not have been possible without open access. With this ability, OA democratizes readership and globally inclusive access for scholars.
Open access can help debunk “false” information. People in their everyday life communicate through social media and share with each other information found on the Internet. Often challenging false information can be a problem when access to “real,” academic work is only available to scholars. With open access, anyone can freely and easily disseminate their work.
Open access is a defense against phishing journals. The funding structures of journals that charge authors per page, and the pressures of the tenure and promotion process, have created a vacuum resulting in myriad phishing journals. The recent increase of fake journals is especially confusing for new scholars and graduate students, who are under great pressure to publish their research. Open access is a defense against such exploitation.
For some, a journal that is freely and openly available to the public may generate concern for quality and respect. Yet it is a journal’s review process and the editorial board that matters the most. For us, the choice between an open access vs. a traditional journal was easy. Open access is the future of a democratized readership of research.
Information about other 2019 Open Access Week activities at Purdue is available at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/2019/09/26/oa-week19/.
Learn more about Purdue’s Open Access resources, including Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue’s open access digital repository, at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, OAWeek19, Open_AccessOctober 21st, 2019
Purdue University College of Education Associate Dean for Research, Graduate Programs, and Faculty Development and Professor and Barbara I. Cook Chair of Literacy and Language Wayne Wright has been selected as the recipient of 2019 Leadership in Open Access Award from Purdue University Libraries and School of Information Studies and the Office of the Provost.
This week (Oct. 21-27) academic institutions and libraries across the globe are celebrating the benefits of Open Access for research and scholarship during the 12th annual International Open Access Week commemoration.
According to Dean of Libraries and School of Information Studies and Esther Ellis Norton Professor of Library Science Beth McNeil, Wright was chosen this year for his exceptional advocacy for Open Access (OA) at Purdue and beyond. Currently, Wright serves as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement, an OA publication.
“Wayne also actively promotes Open Access by sharing open access news and events with his faculty and provides engaging learning opportunities for Purdue’s emerging scholars,” McNeil said.
In 2018, Wright collaborated with faculty in the College of Education and in Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies to help organize a workshop on trending OA topics for graduate students.
“This workshop brought together faculty, graduate students, and librarians, generating rich, cross-disciplinary discussions that continued beyond the workshop,” McNeil added.
Wright noted he’s grateful for Purdue’s commitment and the OA resources provided by Purdue Libraries and School of Information Studies Scholarly Publishing Services to facilitate open access.
“It is a great honor to receive this award,” he explained. “Open Access research is premised on the idea that most research is produced by public universities; thus, the research should be freely accessible to the public.”
Information about other 2019 Open Access Week activities at Purdue is available at https://blogs.lib.purdue.edu/news/2019/09/26/oa-week19/.
Learn more about Purdue’s Open Access resources, including Purdue e-Pubs, Purdue’s open access digital repository, at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, OAWeek19, Open_AccessOctober 26th, 2018
Purdue University Libraries has established an Open Access Publishing Fund to support Purdue faculty, students, and staff (on the West Lafayette campus) who wish to publish their research in fully Open Access journals. According to Scholarly Publishing Specialist Nina Collins, individuals may apply for up to $2,000 to offset charges to publish in scholarly peer-reviewed journals.
Collins noted Purdue Libraries is launching the “OA Publishing Fund” pilot project this week to help celebrate the benefits of Open Access for research and scholarship during the 11th annual International Open Access Week (Oct. 22-28).
Information about how to submit an application to request OA publishing support and the link to the online application form are available at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess/fund.
The Libraries’ Open Access website has also been redesigned and is now live at www.lib.purdue.edu/openaccess (the link can also be found directly on the Libraries’ home page). The website includes a map that shows live, real-time downloads—totaling more than 17 million—from Purdue E-Pubs, Purdue University’s Open Access repository for scholarly works.
“Purdue University Libraries has long been a proponent of Open Access,” Collins said. “While we support initiatives that provide discounts on article processing charges, these fees continue to be out of reach for many. This fund seeks to both support research activities at Purdue University, as well as to increase discovery and visibility of Purdue University research outputs.”
For more information, contact Collins at nkcollin@purdue.edu.
Filed under: faculty_staff, general, Open_Access, Uncategorized