Unit 6: Additional resources

6.1 Open access to scholarship

Courses on open access publishing and open research

Open access best practice

See the Budapest +10 recommendations for best practices in creating, adopting and implementing OA policies and processes. For example, ‘when possible, funder policies should require libre OA, preferably under a CC-BY licence or equivalent’.

More publishing tools

Several tools exist to help faculty and scholars understand their rights and publishing options, and to help them exercise those rights. The Scholars Copyright Addendum Engine can be used by faculty and other authors to amend publication agreements when submitting an article to a traditional publisher. The engine allows authors to choose among different options to reserve rights for themselves, and generates an agreement that is then submitted with a traditional publication agreement to make that legally effective. Additionally, Authors Alliance publishes myriad resources about these tools and open access, and PLoS offers resources and articles about the benefits of open access as well.

(Note that the SCAE and the addenda were updated by Creative Commons in 2019.)

Open access myths debunked

For teachers and students, open access can seem like a scary new world, particularly as the pressure to publish has increased. There are many guides to debunking the myths of open access publishing – and reading them carefully to dispel any fear or misunderstanding is crucial in the current academic landscape.

Critiques of the existing academic publishing system

There are several critiques of the existing academic publishing system. SPARC has an excellent summary of the key points on its open access page, some highlights of which are pasted below:

  • Governments provide most of the funding for research – hundreds of billions of dollars annually – and public institutions employ a large portion of all researchers.
  • Researchers publish their findings without the expectation of compensation. Unlike other authors, they hand their work over to publishers without payment, in the interest of advancing human knowledge.
  • Through the process of peer review, researchers review each other’s work for free.
  • Once published, those that contributed to the research (from taxpayers to the institutions that supported the research itself) have to pay again to access the findings. Though research is produced as a public good, it isn’t available to the public who paid for it.
© 2007–17 SPARC, licensed CC BY.

Myanmar researcher publications

Some examples of open access research publications by Myanmar scholars:

Dr Pho Kaung, rector of the University of Yangon; Saw Lin Oo, Department of Physics, University of East Yangon; Zayar Thu, Department of Physics, Maubin University; and Than Zaw Oo, Department of Physics, Panglong University:

  • Oo, S.L., Thu, Z., Oo, T.Z. and Kaung, P (2017) ‘Optical and electrical properties of antimony and fluorine doped tin oxide thin films’, Universal Journal of Physics and Application, 11(3) pp. 91–6, doi: 10.13189/ujpa.2017.110304 (online). Available at: http://www.hrpub.org/ journals/ article_info.php?aid=6120 (accessed 16 September 2020). Copyright © 2017 by authors. Authors agree that this article remains permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0 International Licence.

Ko Ko Kyaw Soe, Pro-rector, Meiktila University, and Moe Moe Aye, Assistant Lecturer, Than Than Win, Lecturer, and Yin Maung Maung, Department of Physics, University of Yangon:

  • Aye, M.M., Win, T.T., Maung Maung, Y. and Kyaw Soe, K.K. (2014) ‘Binary oxide photoelectrode with coffee natural dye extract for DSSC application’, International Journal of Innovation and Scientific Research, 8(2), pp. 276–82 (online). Available at: http://www.ijisr.issr-journals.org/ abstract.php?article=IJISR-14-179-02 (accessed 16 September 2020). Copyright © 2014 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Researchers from the Department of Geology, University of Yangon, who collaborated on the project, supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Union of Myanmar, that also organised the fieldwork campaigns, described in the articles below:

  • Jaeger, J.-J., Soe, A.N., Chavasseau, O., Coster, P., Emonet, E.-G., Guy, F., Lebrun, R., Maung, A., Khyaw, A.A., Shwe, H., Tun, S.T., Oo, K.L., Rugbumrung, M., Bocherens, H., Benammi, M., Chaivanich, K., Tafforeau, P. and Chaimanee, Y. ‘First hominoid from the late Miocene of the Irrawaddy Formation (Myanmar)’, POLS ONE, 20 April (online). Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1371/ journal.pone.0017065 (accessed 16 September 2020). Copyright: © 2011 Jaeger et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Wah Wah Min from the Department of Zoology, University of Yangon:

  • Zin, W.W.M., Buttachon, S., Buaruang, J., Gales, L., Pereira, J.A., Pinto, M.M.M., Silva, A.M.S. and Kijjoa, A. (2015) ‘A new meroditerpene and a new tryptoquivaline analog from the algicolous fungus Neosartorya takakii KUFC 7898’, Marine Drugs, 13, pp. 3776–90 (online). Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/ 1660-3397/ 13/ 6/ 3776 (accessed 16 September 2020). This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
  • Tiwary, C., Haq, M., Vaitheeswari, S., Kalaiselvi, M., Sikder, M. and Min, W. (2016) ‘DNA barcoding and intra species analysis of the ember parrot fish scarus rubroviolaceus using mtCO1’, IRA International Journal of Applied Sciences, 5(2), pp. 91–109, ISSN 2455-4499 (online). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/ 10.21013/ jas.v5.n2.p5 (accessed 16 September 2020). © Institute of Research Advances This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International Licence subject to proper citation to the publication source of the work.

Sai Sein Lin Oo, Nay Myo Hlaing, Kyaw Myo Naing and Mie Mie Sein from the Department of Zoology, University of Mandalay, Thein Aung from Wild Wings, Yangon, and Tun Oo from Indo-Myanmar Conservation, Yangon:

  • Suarez-Rubio, M., Aung, T., Oo, S.S.L., Shwe, N.M., Hlaing, N.M., Naing, K.M., Oo, T., Sein, M.M. and Renner, S.C. (2016) ‘Nonbreeding bird communities along an urban–rural gradient of a tropical city in central Myanmar’, Tropical Conservation Science, 9(4) (online). Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.1177/ 1940082916675961 (accessed 16 September 2020). © the author(s) 2016. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Licence (http://www.creativecommons.org/ licences/ by-nc/ 3.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/ en-us/ nam/ open-access-at-sage) (received 11 July 2016, accepted 13 September 2016; published 1 January 2020).

Zar Zar Oo from Industrial Chemistry Department, Yadanabon University, Thwe Linn Ko from the Industrial Chemistry Department, University of Mandalay, and Soe Soe Than from Industrial Chemistry Department, University of Yangon:

  • Oo, Z.Z., Ko, T.L. and Than, S.S. (2017) ‘Preparation and characterization of chickpea protein concentrate’, International Journal of Development Research, 7(12), pp. 17720–24 (online). Available at: https://www.journalijdr.com/ preparation-and-characterization-chickpea-protein-concentrate (accessed 16 September 2020). Copyright © 2017, Zar Zar Oo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution Licence, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Soe Soe Than from Industrial Chemistry Department, University of Yangon, also published this article together with Thet Hnin Oo, corresponding author, and and Khin Swe Oo from the Department of Industrial Chemistry, University of Yangon:

  • Oo, T.H., Oo, K.S. and Than, S.S. (2019) ‘physico-chemical properties and sensory evaluation of fish seasoning powder’, American Journal of Food Science and Technology, 7(2), pp. 52–6 (online). Available at: http://pubs.sciepub.com/ ajfst/ 7/ 2/ 3 (accessed 16 September 2020). Published with licence by Science and Education Publishing, Copyright © 2019 Thet Hnin Oo, Khin Swe Oo and Soe Soe Than. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licences/ by/ 4.0/.

Researchers from the Department of Physics, University of Mandalay:

  • Nakashima, D., Hoshino, K., Itonaga, K., Kobayashi, H., Kinbara, S., Nakazawa, K., Soe, M.K., Theint, A.M.M., Tint, K.T. and Yoshida, J. (2017) ‘The alignment method of the emulsion plates for [symbol] hyperon tracking on J-PARC E07’, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP2015), The Physical Society of Japan (online). Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.7566/ JPSCP.17.033005 (accessed 16 September 2020). © 2017 the author(s). This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the article, journal citation, and DOI.
  • Yoshida, J., Ito, H., Kinbara, S., Kobayashi, H., Nakashima, D., Nakazawa, K., Soe, M.K., Theint, A.M.M. and Tint, K.T. (2017) ‘Scanning systems for searching double strangeness nuclei in nuclear emulsion’, Proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP2015), The Physical Society of Japan (online). Available at: https://journals.jps.jp/ doi/ abs/ 10.7566/ JPSCP.17.032001 (accessed 16 September 2020). © 2017 the author(s). This article is available under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the article, journal citation, and DOI.

Researchers from the Department of Agronomy, Yezin Agricultural University:

  • Htwe, A.Z., Yamakawa, T., Moe, K. and Dien, D.C. (2015) ‘Symbiotic effectiveness of different indigenous Bradyrhizobium strains on selected Rj-genes harboring Myanmar soybean cultivars’, African Journal of Microbiology Research, 9(49), pp. 2345–53 (online). Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.5897/ AJMR2015.7751 (accessed 16 September 2020). Copyright © 2020 author(s) retain the copyright of this article. This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Licence 4.0.
  • Ko, K.M.M., Hirai, Y., Zamora, O.B. and de Guzman, L.E. (2017) ‘Agronomic and physiological responses of rice (Oryza sativa L.) under different water management systems, fertilizer types and seedling age’, American Journal of Plant Sciences, 8, pp. 3338–49 (online). Available at: https://doi.org/ 10.4236/ ajps.2017.813225 (accessed 16 September 2020). Copyright © 2017 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International Licence (CC BY 4.0) http://creativecommons.org/ licences/ by/ 4.0/.

More background on open access

More information about open access and OER advocacy

6.2 Opening up your institution

Institutional policies

With permission you could use the OER Policy Development Tool to build an open policy for your institution. You can find examples of open policies others have created at the OER Policy Registry (global) and North American OER policies and projects. You can also explore the OER World Map to find information on national, regional and institutional OER policies.

A Creative Commons policy in New Zealand gives teachers advance permission to disseminate their resources online for sharing and reuse. The policy also ensures that both the school and the teacher – as well as teachers from around the country and around the world – can continue to use and adapt resources produced by New Zealand teachers in the course of their employment. Creative Commons NZ has developed an annotated policy template for schools to adapt.

Library websites, library subject guides, cataloguing and Creative Commons

Librarians who find themselves in the role of content creator may wonder how to license their work. More than 5000 institutions in the United States use LibGuides as their preferred subject guide content management system, with more than 120,000 licence holders around the world. Licensing your resources under Creative Commons can be as simple as using the Licence Chooser to create a machine-readable button for your site or LibGuide.

There are hundreds of LibGuides on library websites about Creative Commons alone. Take a look at these search results and flip through the resources found by subject librarians on the issues of Creative Commons and copyright.