Ulrich Herb
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scinoptica.bsky.social
Ulrich Herb
@scinoptica.bsky.social

⚡ Information Scientist | Library Scientist | Sociologist | Ambitious & Agile & Sarrois | Meritocrat | Freelance Consultant & working for Saarland University.
Personal website: https://pulse49.com/

Computer science 42%
Business 13%

Reposted by Ulrich Herb

Barnstorming piece by @theblochian.bsky.social in @resprofnews.bsky.social today. @lsepress.bsky.social is v proud to be involved in @ojcollective.bsky.social & part of the change that is coming...

Chaos is coming for scholarly publishing www.researchprofessionalnews.com/rr-news-uk-v...
Chaos is coming for scholarly publishing - Research Professional News
Buckling of commercial models alongside maturing of community-led efforts promises major shifts, says Caroline Edwards
www.researchprofessionalnews.com

Delighted to announce the seventh lecture in the Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access series! 🎙️ Samuel Moore on 📷 Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care, and the Commons 📷
November 26, 2025, at 5:00 PM (CET)
unilu.webex.com/weblink/regi...
Meet virtually with Cisco Webex. Anytime, anywhere, on any device.
Simple, modern video meetings for everyone on the world's most popular and trusted collaboration platform.
unilu.webex.com

Delighted to announce the sixth lecture in the Open Divide – Critical Studies on Open Access series!
🎙️ Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost & Behrooz Rasuli present:
🌍 The Global South’s Role in Shaping the #OpenScience Paradigm
📅 Oct 22, 2025 | 5 PM CEST
🔗 opendivide.hypotheses.org/563
The Global South’s Role in Shaping the Open Science Paradigm
In the sixth lecture of the Open Divide Series, Joachim Schöpfel, Hélène Prost, and Behrooz Rasuli will present “The Global South’s Role in Shaping the Open Science Paradigm — an analysis of the Globa...
opendivide.hypotheses.org

💎 Diamond Open Access promises publishing without fees or paywalls. But: vague definition, hidden costs, unpaid labor & legal risks. Without prestige, DOA journals risk being ignored. Too good to be true?
👉 doi.org/10.5281/zeno...

#OpenAccess #DiamondOA #OpenScience
Diamond Open Access - Too good to be true?
Is Diamond Open Access (DOA) the savior of stressed academic library budgets and OA advocates who are clueless about how to deal with the lack of transformation of subscription-based journals and never-ending prolongations of transformative agreements[1]? One might get that impression from the enthusiasm in current debates on reshaping the academic publishing system, a billion-dollar market that absorbs taxpayer money and serves as a ‘gatekeeper of progress’, with journals determining which research gets published, read, and cited. An ever-increasing volume of research is published openly: Anyone with an internet connection can read and work with such an article. For journal articles with OA, generally, two options have existed: Gold OA for journals that are entirely published without subscriptions and Hybrid OA for journals that continue to sell subscriptions but allow for OA to specific articles. So-called “transformative agreements” make every paper from participating institutions in such outlets OA, but the universities pay for it — instead of paying for subscriptions[2]. These contracts come with a plethora of problems[3] and Gold OA struggles with its distorted incentive for publishers to accept more papers to redeem higher APC revenue[4]. DOA is meant to tackle both: Following the common definition, it implies that there exists neither subscription nor publishing fees. Does that sound too good to be true? [1] http://arxiv.org/abs/2409.20224 [2] https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adp8882 [3] http://arxiv.org/abs/2409.20224 [4] https://doi.org/10.1257/000282805774670112
doi.org

Who owns, produces & certifies open knowledge? I shared my reflections as keynote panelist at the OASPA Conference.
Read here 👉 pulse49.com/2025/09/22/w...
#OpenAccess #OpenScience #OASPA25 #OASPA2025
Who Owns, Produces and Certifies Open Knowledge? - pulse49.com
Who Owns, Produces & Certifies Open Knowledge? - my contribution as a Keynote panelist at the OASPA Conference (Sep 22, 2025)
pulse49.com

📢 Online-Zertifikatskurs „Wissenschaftliches Publizieren & #OpenScience“ (10 CP, Uni-Zertifikat) 📢 Themen: #OpenAccess, Qualitätssicherung, #OpenScience, Forschungsbewertung, Forschungsdaten, #KI und vieles mehr.
www.uni-saarland.de/studieren/we...
Wissenschaftliches Publizieren und Open Science
www.uni-saarland.de

🚀 Neu erschienen: Wissenschaftliches Publizieren im Wandel
Kompakter Leitfaden zu #OpenAccess, Peer #Review, Qualität, #Metrics, Forschungsbewertung, Standards – für alle, die ihre Publikationsstrategie gestalten wollen.

👉 pulse49.com/wissenschaft...
Wissenschaftliches Publizieren im Wandel - pulse49.com
„Wissenschaftliches Publizieren im Wandel“ – ein praxisnahes Fachbuch zu Open Access, Impact Peer Review und Forschungsbewertung.
pulse49.com

🚀 My new book is out: Scholarly Publishing in Transition (2025).

It explores #OpenAccess models, peer #review, research #metrics, licensing, and the risks of predatory publishing — with practical tips for researchers and institutions.

More here 👉 pulse49.com/scholarly-pu...
Scholarly Publishing in Transition - pulse49.com
"Scholarly Publishing in Transition" – a practice-oriented textbook on Open Access, Impact, Peer Review, and Research Evaluation
pulse49.com

Honored to be invited as a keynote panelist at the #OASPA 2025 Conference in Leuven, Belgium (22–24 Sept). Looking forward to discussing the future of open access with global colleagues!
More info: www.oaspa.org/events/oaspa...
#OA #OpenAccess
OASPA 2025 Conference Programme - OASPA
www.oaspa.org

📚 Erfolgreich publizieren in der Wissenschaft?
Strategie schlägt Zufall. 🧠
Einblicke aus meinem Workshop an der FH Münster
pulse49.com/2025/06/27/erfolgreich-publizieren-in-der-wissenschaft-strategien-trends-und-tools
Erfolgreich Publizieren in der Wissenschaft: Strategien, Trends und Tools - pulse49.com
Erfolgreich Publizieren in der Wissenschaft: Strategien, Trends und Tools, Workshop an der Fachhochschule Münster
pulse49.com
Springer-Nature launched a series of "Discover" journals that closely mimic MDPI titles -- sharing *identical* journal names, and likely similar business model.

What is going on, and why researcher will - as always - fall for it?

A 🧵

the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io/website/post...
Springer Nature Discovers MDPI – The Strain on Scientific Publishing
Home page for the paper ‘The Strain on Scientific Publishing’ by Mark A Hanson, Dan Brockington, Paolo Crosetto and Pablo Gomez Barreiro
the-strain-on-scientific-publishing.github.io

Surely simple to manage for libraries and streamlined for authors, but again a move away from Gold or Diamond #OpenAccess #OA
BTAA: Big Ten Academic Alliance and Springer Nature Announce First-Ever Unlimited Open Access #Publishing Agreement in the Americas www.infodocket.com/2025/05/29/d... @bigtenacademic.bsky.social @springernature.com #oa

Reposted by Ulrich Herb

BTAA: Big Ten Academic Alliance and Springer Nature Announce First-Ever Unlimited Open Access #Publishing Agreement in the Americas www.infodocket.com/2025/05/29/d... @bigtenacademic.bsky.social @springernature.com #oa

Excited to announce the second lecture of the Open Divide Series 2025/2026. on May 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM (CEST).

🎤 #OpenScience and the Information Industry: French Debates and Insights
by Thomas Parisot and Yann Mahé.
#OpenAccess #OA

opendivide.hypotheses.org/414
Open Science and the Information Industry: French Debates and Insights
We’re pleased to continue the 2025/2026 Open Divide Lecture Series with its second talk on May 28, 2025, at 5:00 PM CEST. The second lecture in the Open Divide Series will feature Thomas Parisot and Y...
opendivide.hypotheses.org

💶 Spending on #OpenAccess in Germany's universities has risen from €6.2M (2018) to over €100M (2024) – a 1500%+ increase.
🔐 Closed Access remains stable and still dominates budgets.

🔗 pulse49.com/2025/05/23/l...

#OA #Germany #ScholComm
Library Spending in Transition: Open Access Surges, Closed Access Remains Steady - pulse49.com
German Library Statistics reveals a clear trend: spending on Closed Access has remained stable, Open Access expenditures have surged dramatically.
pulse49.com

A snapshot of Open Access uptake across domains in 2024 – based on OpenAlex data. Life and Health Sciences lead with the highest OA shares, while Social Sciences stand out with the highest proportion of hybrid and bronze OA. More insights here:
🔗 pulse49.com/2025/05/20/s...
#OpenAccess #ScholComm
Snapshot 2024: Open Access by Academic Discipline - pulse49.com
Snapshot 2024: Open Access by Academic Discipline. Gold dominates in Life & Health Sciences, Social Sciences lead in Hybrid, Bronze & Diamond OA.
pulse49.com

Reposted by Ulrich Herb

Wie offen ist #OpenAccess wirklich? Ulrich Herb
‪ (@uni-saarland.de) gibt im oa_blog Einblicke in die neue Veranstaltungsreihe Open Divide 2025/2026, die die Schattenseiten der OA-Transformation beleuchtet.
open-access.network/blog/ein-kri...

#WissKomm #DiamondOpenAccess #Bibliothek

🔍 #OpenAccess #OA 2015–2024: A 10-Year Review
OA peaked at 59% in 2023, then dropped to 47% in 2024.
📌 Gold OA dominates (45% of OA output)
📌 Hybrid OA rising via transformative deals
📌 Bronze & Green OA declining
📌 Diamond OA stable
📊 Full post: pulse49.com/2025/05/15/o...
Open Access Trends in Scholarly Publishing 2015–2024 - pulse49.com
Open Access rose to 59% of article output by 2023 before dropping to 47% in 2024. Gold OA dominates; Diamond remains stable but marginal.
pulse49.com

Reposted by Ulrich Herb

l'Université de Lorraine has reallocated the funds freed up when they stopped subscribing to Wiley's journals bundle, enabling univlorraine.bsky.social to increase its #scienceouvert contributions to €134,000 or 7% of the university’s subscriptions budget. scienceouverte.univ-lorraine.fr/en/home/
Home -
The University of Lorraine has been resolutely committed to Open Science since 2016 and the opening of its HAL-UL institutional archive
scienceouverte.univ-lorraine.fr

📚 Academic libraries pay vastly different prices for the same databases
Joel B. Thornton & Curtis Brundy expose how major vendors like Clarivate, Elsevier, and the American Chemical Society use pricing secrecy and NDAs to prevent cost comparisons.
🔗 Read more: katinamagazine.org/content/arti...
Academic Databases and the Art of the Overcharge
Clarivate, Elsevier, and the American Chemical Society are comfortable pursuing a strategy of pricing discrimination. But libraries don’t have to go along with it. This data can help.
katinamagazine.org

🔍 Dritjon Gruda proposes AI-powered ways to speed up peer review
🚀 Smarter reviews? Less burden!
#AI #PeerReview
🔗 nature.com/articles/d41586-025-00526-0
Three AI-powered steps to faster, smarter peer review
Tired of spending countless hours on peer reviews? An AI-assisted workflow could help.
nature.com

🔒 #OpenScience Backlash: U.S. Limits Data Access
New rules restrict foreign researchers—especially from China—from accessing databases. Meanwhile, Nature reports China has overtaken the U.S. in cancer research output.
www.fiercebiotech.com/research/nih...
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
NIH blocks researchers in China, Russia and other countries from multiple databases
The Trump administration has blocked access to multiple data repositories maintained by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for researchers in several countries, including a cancer statistics d | ...
www.fiercebiotech.com

even though e.g. Publish-Review-Curate combines preprints & reviewing @ecologistgreen.bsky.social is right: "The answer is to fix peer review (...), not to scrap it entirely or pretend it can work ad hoc in the comments section of a #preprint." scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2025/04/17/g...
Guest Post:  Preprints Serve the Anti-science Agenda – This Is Why We Need Peer Review - The Scholarly Kitchen
Science is built on a foundation of rigor and credibility. Preprints are adding to the crumbling of that foundation, which is already under attack by anti-science political agendas.
scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org

Another very insightful analysis from @deltathink.bsky.social: Hybrid #OpenAccess prices increased below the inflation rate, effectively making them cheaper in real terms – quite the opposite of Gold #OpenAccess, where prices rose above inflation. www.deltathink.com/news-views-t...
News & Views: The Impact of Inflation on APC Costs
www.deltathink.com

Not to criticize, just to document the development: Between December 2023 and February 2024, the fee for Fast Track Review at the Journal of Medical Internet Research (JMIR) increased from 450 to 950 USD. #peerreview #scholcomm

web.archive.org/web/20231217...

web.archive.org/web/20240204...
How to fast-track (expedite) a paper and what are the benefits?
What is Fast Track? Authors sometimes have to meet publication deadlines, e.g. for promotion & tenure, thesis defense, grant proposals, spending of research funds before a certain deadline, pub...
web.archive.org

Not to criticize it (unless I'm mistaken), but is it possible that JMIR increased its Fast Track fee from 450 USD in 2022 to 950 USD in 2024? I am only seeking clarification...

www.jmir.org/author-infor...
Journal of Medical Internet Research - Author Information
www.jmir.org

🚨 Entire Mathematical Logic Quarterly editorial board resigns over conflicts with Wiley, citing threats to peer review independence. Announces new #DiamondOA journal: ZML – Zeitschrift für Mathematische Logik und Grundlagen der Mathematik. #OpenAccess #OA
zml.international/files/zml-op...
zml.international

🎙️ Kicking off the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/26:
📅 April 23, 5PM CEST
🗣️ Rebecca Bryant @rebeccabryant.bsky.social (OCLC): Libraries Supporting Open Research – International Perspectives
✨ Abstract & registraion: opendivide.hypotheses.org/369
#OpenAccess #AcademicLibraries #OpenDivide
Libraries Supporting Open Research: International Perspectives
We are excited to announce the launch of the Open Divide Lecture Series 2025/2026, beginning on April 23, 2025, at 5:00 PM CEST. We will kick off the series with the talk:“Libraries Supporting Open Re...
opendivide.hypotheses.org

After 3 exciting years, scidecode as a company comes to an end. Huge thanks to Laura Rothfritz & Pablo de Castro for the great collaboration! The spirit lives on in new, independent projects. Archive & farewell note: pulse49.com/2025/04/06/c... #OpenScience #ScienceConsulting
Closing the chapter on scidecode – a look back and ahead - pulse49.com
Closing the chapter on scidecode – a look back and ahead. After three exciting years, scidecode as a formal company will be discontinued.
pulse49.com