The “Sistema Nacional de Repositorios Digitales” (SNRD), supported by the Argentinean Ministry of Science, Technology & Productive Innovation (MINCYT), has now started the development of a national network of digital repositories.

Silvia Nakano, MINCYT, comments: “With this new system, the visibility and impact of the Argentinean scientific and technical production will be greatly enhanced. The network will promote joint policies, coordinate action plans and set general standards.” Norbert Lossau, chair of the COAR Executive Board, notes: “We are delighted to see this Argentinean initiative taking off. It is an important step in building up a global e-infrastructure based on digital repositories. COAR supports repository communities around the world to become active and visible on an international scale.”

The main objectives of SNRD are to promote Open Access, the exchange of research through a national network of repositories, and interoperability of Argentinean repositories with other Latin American and international virtual networks.

Further information:

• [pdf] Letter by Silvia Nakano, MINCYT, Argentina, 16 February 2012
• [pdf] Statement of Support by COAR, 11 April 2011

COAR is delighted to sponsor the forthcoming SPARC Open Access Meeting that will take place in Kansas, March 11-13, 2012. The program includes a track for digital repositories. Kathleen Shearer, chair of COAR´s working group 1 will moderate the theme “Digital repositories – building a worldwide infrastructure alongside trust for authors and users ” focussing on interoperability and the integration of repositories in the e-research environment. The overall conference program, developed by librarians, publishers, analysts, scholars, and technologists from five countries, will consider developments across four topic areas such as national and institutional policy adoption, digital repositories, author rights and gold OA publishing. For more information please see

http://www.arl.org/sparc/meetings/oa12/oa12-program/index.shtml”.

SPARC is a partner of COAR. Both organizations share a common view that there are significant benefits for researchers and society to improving the visibility, dissemination, and reuse of research results.

Open Letter to Elsevier

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories (COAR) joins the research community in condemning Elsevier for its recent business practices and lobbying that undermine policies and activities promoting open access to scholarly literature. While many commercial publishers are working to adapt their business models to rising demands for open access, Elsevier has systematically acted to counter progress being made in the scholarly community towards this end.

One easy way of achieving open access is through the deposit of articles into online open access repositories. COAR strongly opposes the changes made by Elsevier to its article posting policies. These policies prohibit authors affiliated with institutions or agencies that have open access mandates to deposit copies of their articles into an open access repository unless their institution signs a very restrictive agreement with Elsevier. Despite their public commitment to “universal access”, Elsevier’s policies are greatly limiting access to scholarly literature.

These policies are in direct conflict with the objectives of COAR’s members and partners as well as the broader scholarly community, which aim to maximize access to and use of research literature. Therefore, COAR is discouraging its members and others from entering into agreements with Elsevier or other publishers that undermine open access mandates and intervene with already established and emerging author practices of article deposit.

COAR urges Elsevier to reconsider its prohibitive approach to open access and revise its policies to allow the deposit of research articles with minimum delay. We encourage publishers to work closely with the library and repository communities to develop effective and sustainable methods for article deposit that serve the needs of researchers, their institutions, and society as a whole. In addition, COAR welcomes like-minded organizations – such as licensing agencies, library consortia, etc. – to join us in developing and adopting best practice for policies and procedures regarding article deposit into open access repositories.

The Confederation of Open Access Repositories is a not-for-profit association of repository initiatives that aims to enhance visibility and application of research outputs through global networks of Open Access digital repositories. COAR represents over 80 institutions from 24 countries from throughout Europe, Latin America, Asia, and North America.

Norbert Lossau, Chair of the Executive Board, Confederation of Open Access Repositories

The full letter can be found here: [pdf] COAR open letter to Elsevier.

Spanish version of the letter

Japanese version of the letter

This translation has been provided within the framework of COAR Latin America’s regional activities. We are especially grateful to Malgorzata Lisowska, Director of the Library of Universidad del Rosario, Colombia. We hope this will be the first of many such COAR publications to be translated into other languages.

Nos complace anunciar la publicación de la versión española del documento informativo del Grupo de Trabajo 2 de COAR sobre la interoperabilidad, “El caso de interoperabilidad para repositorios de acceso abierto”. Las versiones en español e inglés están ahora disponibles en la página web de COAR en: http://www.coar-repositories.org/working-groups/repository-interoperability/coar-interoperability-project/a-case-for-interoperability/

Esta traducción ha sido proporcionada en el marco de las actividades regionales de COAR Latinoamérica. Un agradecimiento especial a Margarita Lisowska, Directora de la Biblioteca de la Universidad del Rosario, Colombia. Esperamos que esta sea la primera de muchas publicaciones de COAR traducidas a otros idiomas.

2011 has been an eventful year for COAR Executive Board, office, members and partners. One of the main highlights of this year was initiating our collaboration with Open Access initiatives in Latin America and signing a Memorandum of Understanding with the regional organization CLARA. In Europe we are working on joining forces with important regional players and cooperating with LIBER. Further initial contacts to other regions are being established and we very much hope to create an interesting and truly international network in the coming months.

On behalf of the COAR Executive Board and COAR Office, we would like to thank you for all your support during the past months and look forward to continuing to establish stronger repository infrastructures and exchanges with you in 2012.

COAR Executive Board and COAR Office wish you Happy Holidays and a prosperous New Year!

The open discussion is designed to gather input about current and anticipated challenges related to interoperability for OA repositories.

New topics for discussion: 

• Repository Interoperability and NGOs, IGOs, Non-Profit Organizations, and Research Funding Agencies
• Regional Issues for: Latin America, Africa, India and Asia
• Open Access, Open Educational Resources, Open Data, Open Science and Related Issues for Interoperability
• If I only knew then what I know now — advice to give new repository managers
• The interoperability resources you can’t live without
• What is being taught about interoperability in graduate school curricula?

Continued topics for discussion: 

• What are the major technical issues and challenges regarding interoperability for OA repositories that need to be addressed?
• What are the major organizational challenges related to global interoperability for OA repositories?

Funding agencies including the European Commission, [htm] Wellcome Trust in the UK, the [htm] National Institutes of Health in the US, and many other organizations require recipients of research funding to deposit copies of all research outputs into a freely-accessible, publicly-accessible Open Access Repository.

Other organizations such as the World Bank are supporting Open Data initiatives by collecting and disseminating data sets and indicators into globally-accessible, freely-accessible repositories.

• What are the major issues related to repository interoperability for these types of organizations?
• What issues related to repository interoperability should NGOs, IGOs, and research funding bodies be discussing?
• What other ways can these types of organizations support repository interoperability?
• What resources exist related to interoperability issues specifically for NGOs, IGOs, non-profit organizations, and research funding agencies? What other resources are needed?
• What related issues are on the horizon?

What are the key challenges related to OA repository interoperability in India and Asia? What issues are unique to this area? How do bandiwdth issues, Internet access, and the use of mobile devices play into repository interoperability issues?

Language:

Is language a factor in OA repository interoperability?

Collaboration:

How do libraries work together to support interoperability?

Leadership:

Who are the leaders in this area? What libraries, institutions, or other organizations support OA repository interoperability in India and Asia? What more is needed? How can organizations such as COAR support OA repository interoperability for India and Latin America?

Best Practices, Lessons Learned, Success Stories: 

What are some examples or success stories related to regional efforts to support repository interoperability? Are there documented best practices?

What else do we need to know about interoperability for OA repositories as it relates specifically to India and Asia? 

What are the key challenges related to OA repository interoperability in Africa? What issues related to OA repository interoperability are unique to Africa? How do bandwidth issues, Internet access, and the use of mobile devices play into repository interoperability?

Language:

Is language a factor in OA repository interoperability in Africa?

Collaboration:

How do libraries work together to support interoperability?

Leadership:

Who are the leaders in this area? What libraries, institutions, or other organizations support OA repository in Africa? What more is needed? How can organizations such as COAR support OA repository interoperability for Africa?

Best Practices, Lessons Learned, Success Stories:

What are some examples of or success stories related to regional efforts to support interoperability in Africa? Are there documented best practices?

What else do we need to know about interoperability for OA repositories as it relates specifically to Africa?

What are the key issues related to OA repository interoperability in Latin America? What issues are unique to Latin America? Do bandwidth issues, Internet access, or the use of mobile devices play into repository interoperability?

Language:

Is language a factor in OA repository interoperability in Latin America?

Collaboration: 

How do libraries in Latin America work together to support interoperability?

Leadership: 

Who are the leaders in this area? What libraries, institutions, or other organizations support OA repository interoperability? What more is needed? How can organizations like COAR support OA repository interoperability in Latin America?

Best Practices, Lessons Learned, Success Stories: 

What are some examples or success stories related to national or regional efforts to support interoperability in Latin America? Are there documented best practices?

What else should we know about challenges with interoperability of OA repositories specifically as it relates to Latin America?