PEER announces upcoming calls for research tenders

["Janice Kuta" <kuta@stm-assoc.org>]

The following should be of interest.

News release
10 December 2008
PEER - PUBLISHING AND THE ECOLOGY OF EUROPEAN RESEARCH

PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT OF UPCOMING CALLS FOR TENDER

PEER is a pioneering collaboration between publishers, 
repositories and the research community, by which at least 16,000 
peer reviewed manuscripts destined to become journal articles in 
ISI ranked journals will be made available for archiving every 
year for three years. The aim is to investigate the effects of 
the large-scale deposit (so called Green Open Access) on user 
access, author visibility, and journal viability.

At the heart of the project an Observatory will be built to 
gather evidence about the impact of systematic archiving of 
stage-two research outputs. Three strands of research will be 
tendered:

1. Behavioural Research: Authors and Users vis-=E0-vis Journals
    and Repositories (Call mid-December 2008, Deadline
    mid-February 2009). The objectives will be to:

* Track trends and explain patterns of author and user behaviour 
in the context of so called Green Open Access.
* Understand the role repositories play for authors in the 
context of journal publishing.
* Understand the role repositories play for users in context of
accessing journal articles.

2. Usage Research: Journals and Repositories (Call mid-December
    2008, Deadline mid-February 2009). The objectives will be to:

* Determine usage trends at publishers and repositories;
* Understand source and nature of use of deposited manuscripts 
in repositories;
* Track trends, develop indicators and explain patterns of usage 
for repositories and journals.

3. Economic research:  The deposit of journal manuscripts in
    repositories (Summer 2009). The objectives will be to:

* Compare the efficiency and cost effectiveness of methods of 
deposit, e.g. publisher-assisted vs. author self-archiving;
* Compare the efficiency and cost effectiveness of access, e.g. 
repositories vs. publisher systems.

The International Association of Scientific, Technical and 
Medical Publishers (STM), the European Science Foundation, 
Goettingen State and University Library, the Max Planck Society 
and INRIA will collaborate on PEER, supported by the SURF 
Foundation and University of Bielefeld, which will contribute the 
expertise of the EU-funded DRIVER project. Significant about the 
PEER project is the cooperation of the various stakeholders in 
the scholarly publishing cycle without prejudice.

The PEER project has nominated a Research Oversight Group:

* Justus Haucap, Professor of Competition Policy, University of 
Erlangen. Prof. Haucap chairs the German Monopolies Commission;
* Henk Moed, Senior researcher at the Centre for Science and
Technology Studies, Leiden University. Dr. Moed has been the recipient 
of the Derek de Solla Price Award;
* Carol Tenopir, Professor of Information Sciences, University of 
Tennessee. Prof. Tenopir has received the International Information 
Industry Lifetime Achievement Award.

The set-up of the PEER project offers a number of distinctions that 
bidders could utilise in the design of the study:

* PEER is based on the selection of 200 to 300 ISI ranked 
journals, from which manuscripts are selected for deposit. 
Publishers hold a control group of equivalent journals from 
which no manuscripts will be deposited.
* From journals selected for deposit, only the manuscripts with
European based (lead) authors are selected for archiving, leaving all 
other articles/manuscripts as an alternate group.
* Half of the manuscripts will be deposited directly by the 
publisher, but the other half will require action by the author 
before archiving.
* Authors will be invited to deposit in repositories 
participating in the PEER project.

The PEER press release from 14 October 2008 is available at:
http://www.stm-assoc.org/home/stm-partners-in-the-just-launched-pioneering-collaboration-b.html

For enquiries regarding the PEER Observatory, please contact 
Chris Armbruster, Max Planck Digital Library, Max Planck Society. 
Email: armbruster@mpdl.mpg.de

PEER Partners:

International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical 
Publishers (STM), the European Science Foundation, Goettingen 
State and University Library, the Max Planck Society, INRIA, SURF 
Foundation and University of Bielefeld

Janice E. Kuta
Director of Marketing & Membership
International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers
E-mail: kuta@stm-assoc.org
Tel: 212-533-0832
Fax: 212-420-8407
www.stm-assoc.org