[ Call for Papers ]

We placed the Call for Papers for our next Emergence workshop on the topic of Open Access – From a Peripheral Phenomenon to the Leading Paradigm in Science Policy, Archive Practices, and Scientific Self-presentation. The workshop will take place in October 2008.

The reasons for the strengthening of Open-Access policies are manifold and range from economic reasons in the face of exploding prices in the area of print publications, to legal grounds and further to a not necessarily converted, but however intensified self-conception of researcher in self-management, for whom there is a vital need for quantitative, qualitative and, above all, swiftly absorbable publications that can be placed according to internal requirements. Download figures and citation indices constitute professional capital for researchers.

Open-Access publications in online journals are supposed to promote the core of scientific work and to guarantee exactly this capital for their operators: fast, free of charge and at all times available access to information; visibility and increased self-representation in a worldwide network; unproblematic traceability, cost efficiency and promptness of the publication; advancement of interdisciplinarity, discursiveness and discussion of research; longevity of filing; self administration of rights. All this, in theory, leads to a manifold scientific emergence, as the freely available and easily traceable information would bring together researchers, who are a long way from each other geographically and disciplinarily.

The workshop discusses strategies of Free accessibility and quick traceability, Funding policies, and Presentation techniques.

Deadline for proposals is September 20, 2008.