Curs gratuit de „Integrare economica europeana”, la Universitatea „Cuza” din Iasi

 Centrul de Documentare Europeana Jean Monnet„, din cadrul Universitatii „Alexandru Ioan Cuza” (UAIC) din Iasi, organizeaza, în perioada 1 martie – 1 mai 2019, cursul facultativ Integrare economica europeana„. Acesta este gratuit si deschis tuturor celor interesati. La finalul cursului, participantii vor primi un certificat „Jean Monnet”.

Procedura de înscriere consta în completarea unui formular de înscriere electronic, disponibil la adresa www.cse.uaic.ro, pâna la data de 28 februarie 2019. Fiind disponibil un numar limitat de locuri, selectia cursantilor va fi realizata si printr-o evaluare a motivelor prezentate de cei înscrisi pentru a urma acest curs. Cursurile se vor desfasura modular, conform orarului anuntat pe site-ul www.cse.uaic.ro.

„Modulul are drept scop familiarizarea cursantilor cu ideea de integrare în Europa, regasind în sinteza principalele idei si momente din perioada anterioara semnarii Tratatului de la Roma (1957), ca moment al declansarii procesului de integrare sub formula unei Comunitati Economice – pilon central al formarii si functionarii Uniunii Europene (UE) astazi. Tematica cursului satisface atât nevoia generala de a întelege procesul de integrare europeana, cât si nevoia de a cunoaste politicile cu impact major asupra diferitelor aspecte de natura economica”, arata oficialii UAIC.

Cursurile „Jean Monnet” au fost initiate la „Cuza” cu sprijinul logistic oferit de Comisia Europeana (CE) prin intermediul programului „Jean Monnet”. Acest program a fost lansat în anul 1989 pentru a sustine cercetarea academica privind integrarea europeana în statele membre. Treizeci de ani mai târziu, programul continua sa finanteze educatia si cercetarea în domeniul politicilor UE si sa stimuleze dialogul dintre cadrele universitare, factorii de decizie si actorii societatii civile din întreaga lume.

Publicație :  Bună Ziua Iași

Colocviul National de Muzicologie editia XXI, 22-23 februarie 2019

Vineri, 22 februarie 2019, ora 16:00, in sala „Eduard Caudella”, Casa Bals din str. Cuza Voda, nr. 29 va avea loc deschiderea manifestarilor Colocviului National de Muzicologie, Editia  XXI, cu tematica ARTA sonora si interdisciplinaritatea. Festivitatea de deschidere va fi urmata de lansarea celui de-al XIV-lea volum de Studii de muzicologie, continuand cu momentul in honorem – Viorel Munteanu. Cu ocazia celebrarii compozitorului, muzicologului, profesor universitar doctor Viorel Munteanu – personalitatii emblematice a culturii iesene –, se va  lansa albumul aniversar Viorel Munteanu – Portrete in timp…, impreuna cu volumele autorului Rezonante si Documente sonore: creatii vocal-simfonice si de camera, vol. V si Muzica de camera, vol VI.

Obiectivele majore propuse de Colocviul National de Muzicologie sunt: investigarea istorico-stiintifica si structurala a fenomenului muzical; favorizarea formarii unei viziuni globale si realiste privind modul concret in care trebuie conceput si realizat procesul de creatie; manifestarea initiativei de sustinere a propriilor opinii – in special pentru elevi, studenti, masteranzi – si constituirea unui real schimb de experienta, prin transmiterea catre participanti a rezultatului cercetarii fiecaruia in vastul domeniu al invatamantului cultural – artistic si educativ.

Publicație :  Bună Ziua Iași

USAMV a stabilit deja calendarul admiterii!

Universitatea a solicitat 1.315 locuri, dintre care 850 finanţate de la buget, iar 465 cu taxă * ca noutate, la Facultatea de Horticultură a fost înfiinţată o nouă specializare – Biotehnologii agricole

Universitatea de Ştiinţe Agricole şi Medicină Veterinară „Ion Ionescu de la Brad” (USAMV) Iaşi a stabilit deja condiţiile şi calendarul admiterii pentru anul universitar 2019-2020. Numărul total de locuri solicitate Ministerului Educaţiei Naţionale este de 1.315, dintre care 850 locuri sunt solicitate de la buget, iar 465 locuri sunt propuse la taxă.

Noutatea Admiterii 2019 vine de la Facultatea de Horticultură a USAMV Iaşi, care va avea o specializare nouă la studii de licenţă, respectiv Biotehnologii agricole. Viitorii studenţi vor învăţa cum se realizează soiuri de plante mai rezistente care permit obţinerea de recolte ce se pot dezvolta pe soluri mai puţin prietenoase sau chiar aride.

În perioada 15 – 26 iulie 2019 va avea loc înscrierea candidaţilor pentru admiterea din sesiunea iulie 2019 la domeniile Agronomie, Horticultură, Zootehnie, Inginerie şi management în agricultură şi dezvoltare rurală, Ingineria produselor alimentare, Ingineria mediului, Biotehnologii şi Biologie.

Înscrierea candidaţilor la domeniul Medicină Veterinară va avea loc în perioada15 – 25 iulie 2019, iar testul grilă se va desfăşura în data de 26 iulie 2019.

Admiterea candidaţilor la USAMV Iaşi se face pe baza notelor obţinute la probele de Bacalaureat (nota de la proba scrisă de Limba şi literatura română – 50%, nota de la o altă probă scrisă, la alegerea candidatului – 50%), cu excepţia domeniului Medicină veterinară. Admiterea candidaţilor la Facultatea de Medicină veterinară se face pe baza unui test grilă şi a mediei la examenul de Bacalaureat. La stabilirea mediei finale de admitere, rezultatul testului grilă va avea o pondere de 30 %, iar media de la Bacalaureat va o pondere de 70 %.

Studenţii USAMV Iaşi beneficiază de burse – în ţară şi în străinătate, de cazare în campusul studenţesc, de condiţii moderne de studiu, de baze de practicăproprii situate în mai multe regiuni ale ţării, precum şi de o bază sportivăcompletă.

Publicație : Evenimentul și Ziarul de Iași și Bună Ziua Iași

 La ce cluburi ale Casei Studenţilor vă puteţi înscrie

 Tinerii din Iaşi se pot înscrie până la finalul acestei luni la unul dintre cluburile din cadrul Casei Studenţilor. Aceasta este cea de-a doua sesiune de recrutări organizate în acest an universitar de către cluburile studenţeşti de la instituţie. 

Astfel, iubitorii de artă, muzică, dans sau literatură se pot înscrie de săptămâna aceasta la unul sau mai multe cluburi dorite. Tinerii trebuie să completeze un formular de înscriere disponibil atât pe site-ul www.ccsiasi.ro, dar şi la secretariat, şi să-l depună până pe 28 februarie. Tinerii au posibilitatea să se înscrie la nouă cluburi care activează în acest moment în cadrul Casei Studenţilor. Cei interesaţi pot alege să se înscrie la „Fabrica de Voluntari“, Clubul de muzică „Richard Oschanitzky“, Ansamblul Folcloric „Doina Carpaţilor“, Clubul de dans „Elegance“, Trupa de dans „The Sky“, Teatrul Studenţesc XL, Clubul de Arte Vizuale „ConceptArt“, Clubul „Susţine Artiştii Ieşeni“ şi Revista de Cultură „Junimea Studenţeas­că“.

 Publicație : Ziarul de Iași

 

Editie in lumina reflectoarelor Studioului BZI LIVE, in DIALOG cu unul dintre cei mai importanti si renumiti medici veterinari din Romania

 Joi, 21 februarie, in direct la BZI LIVE s-a derulat o noua emisiune de impact national, alaturi de prof. univ. dr. Gheorghe Solcan din cadrul Universitatii de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara Ion Ionescu de la Brad – USAMV Iasi, unul dintre cei mai importanti si valorosi medici veterinari din Romania • In cadrul emisiunii, reputatul universitar a oferit sfaturi extrem de interesante si de utile pentru toti cei care au animale de companie • Cum ai grija, corect, de pisica ta sau cainele tau! • Cele mai comune probleme cu care ne confruntam atunci cand avem animale in casa • Medicul Gheorghe Solcan a oferi si sfaturi pretioase tuturor fermierilor interesati • Despre lumea fascinanta a animalelor crescuta in ferme sau mediul rural, despre ingrijirea corecta a vacilor, porcilor, cailor sau boli ale acestora s-a dialogat doar in direct la BZI LIVE • In alta ordine de idei, prof. univ. dr. ing. Gheorghe Solcan a detaliat si cazuri dificile care au ajuns la cabinetul veterinar pe care acesta il coordoneaza la Facultatea de Medicina Veterinara din Iasi • Pe de alta parte, care este primul ajutor pe care il ofera medicul veterinar unui patruped ce prezinta probleme la coloana, care este hrana potrivita pentru animalele de companie sau altele au fost oferite in aceasta editie • Emisiunea completa cu profesorul Solcan poate fi urmarita AICI:

Pe 21 februarie, in direct la BZI LIVE s-a derulat o noua emisiune de impact national, alaturi de prof. univ. dr. Gheorghe Solcan din cadrul Universitatii de Stiinte Agricole si Medicina Veterinara Ion Ionescu de la Brad (USAMV) Iasi, unul dintre cei mai importanti si valorosi medici veterinari din Romania. In cadrul emisiunii, reputatul universitar a oferit sfaturi extrem de interesante si de utile pentru toti cei care au animale de companie.

Cum ai grija, corect, de pisica ta sau cainele tau!. Cele mai comune probleme cu care ne confruntam atunci cand avem animale in casa. Medicul Gheorghe Solcan a oferi si sfaturi pretioase tuturor fermierilor interesati. Despre lumea fascinanta a animalelor crescuta in ferme sau mediul rural, despre ingrijirea corecta a vacilor, porcilor, cailor sau boli ale acestora s-a dialogat doar in direct la BZI LIVE.

In alta ordine de idei, prof. univ. dr. ing. Gheorghe Solcan a detaliat si cazuri dificile care au ajuns la cabinetul veterinar pe care acesta il coordoneaza la Facultatea de Medicina Veterinara din Iasi. Pe de alta parte, care este primul ajutor pe care il ofera medicul veterinar unui patruped ce prezinta probleme la coloana, care este hrana potrivita pentru animalele de companie sau altele au fost oferite in aceasta editie.

Dincolo de toate acestea, acesta a vorbit si plecarea resursei umane calificate peste hotare, o mai buna finantare a sistemului educational autohton, colaborari si proiecte pe plan international dar si ce l-a determinat, in urma cu aproape doua decenii, sa nu plece in Statele Unite ale Americii (SUA). Emisiunea completa cu profesorul Solcan poate fi urmarita AICI: 

Publicație : Bună Ziua Iași

  

Top universities will need to accept fewer middle class students to meet diversity targets, regulator admits

Top universities will need to accept fewer middle class students in order to meet diversity targets, the Office for Students has admitted.

Russell Group institutions must „eliminate” the gap in admissions between wealthier students and their less well-off peers within 20 years, according to targets published by the universities watchdog.

But in order to achieve this, they will need to “considerably reduce” the number of students they admit from well-off backgrounds, according to the regulator’s analysis.

The OFS considered two ways in which the gap between advantaged and disadvantaged students could be narrowed over the next two decades. Under one scenario, the country’s most prestigious universities – where the gap between rich and poor students is the most pronounced – would need to roughly double their intake over the next 20 years.

However, the OFS notes that the Department for Education’s forecasts on student numbers indicate that there is not going to be any major growth in the future, rendering this scenario is unlikely.

The other scenario under which universities could meet the diversity targets – based on the current numbers of students remaining stable – would be “considerably reducing the number of students entering higher education” from well-off backgrounds.

Professor Claire Callender, an expert in higher education policy at University College London’s Institute of Education and Birkbeck University, said that such a move would provoke an “enormous backlash”.

She questioned where setting quotas for social class would fall foul of equalities law, adding: „If the only option is to have some form of positive discrimination, I am not clear whether it would be permitted under the law.”

Prof Callendar went on: „Targets are very useful and certainly it is important that universities do everything they can to widen the  participation of underrepresented groups.”

While there is sympathy for the general aim of improving diversity, she warned that there would be “quite considerable resistance” from institutions, parents and students to the idea of capping the number of well-off undergraduates.

Sir Peter Lampl, founder of the Sutton Trust, described the suggestion that universities could cap the number of well-off students as “radical”.

“The OfS is right to look to radical solutions to increase access at the most selective universities,” he said. “Despite efforts and some progress in the past two decades, the gap remains wide.”

The social mobility charity has championed the use of “contextual admissions”, where students from poor backgrounds are given places at top universities based on lower A-level offers than their well-off peers.

“Doing this could radically shift the balance and increase the numbers of the poorest students studying at the most selective universities,” he said.

The OFS documents which reveal the scenarios were published as part of a tranche of papers released following a recent board meeting where the widening participation targets were set.

So far, the regulator has only published diversity targets for „higher tariff” institutions, which refers to members of the Russell Group and a handful of other universities which set high entry requirements for incoming students.

The OFS is waiting until after the Prime Minister’s higher education review is published to set targets for the entire sector.

In 2017, Theresa May ordered a review of post-18 education led by Philip Augar, a former equities broker. It is due to report to the Department for Education later this year.

The Prime Minister came under pressure on the issue after it was felt that Jeremy Corbyn’s pledge to abolish tuition fees won support from young voters in last year’s general election.

Publicație : The Telegraph

Essex University lecturer accused of antisemitic Facebook posts

Holocaust denial among topics in posts allegedly shared on social media by Dr Maaruf Ali

Essex University’s Colchester campus. The university is investigating the claims of antisemitism against one of its lecturers. Photograph: Felix Clay/The Guardian

The University of Essex is investigating after a science lecturer allegedly posted antisemitic messages on Facebook.

Jewish community leaders and student groups raised concerns about several social media posts allegedly shared by the computer science lecturer Dr Maaruf Ali. Their content is alleged to include Holocaust denial, Zionist conspiracy theories and opposition to the creation of a Jewish society at the university.

The alarm was raised after Ali allegedly posted that “the Zionists next want to create a society here at our university!” on a Facebook page for University of Essex freshers, under a post claiming Israel planned to “expel 36,000 Palestinians from the Negev”.

The lecturer also allegedly shared a post in March 2016 stating that “50,000 Jews protest[ed] Israel” in New York. The post said there was a “total mainstream media blackout by the Zionist mafia”.

He also allegedly shared an image from Smoloko.com, a far-right Nazi-apologist website, which claimed one of the French police officers shot dead in the 2015 Paris terror attacks was “a Mossad agent live and well in Buenos Aires … a crypto-Jew in the service of Israeli intelligence”.

Dave Rich, the head of policy at the Community Security Trust, which has monitored antisemitism for 35 years and provides security to the UK Jewish community, called on the university to immediately suspend Ali.

He said: “It is deeply disturbing that someone who posts such blatantly antisemitic material, including Holocaust denial and conspiracy theories about a ‘Zionist mafia’ controlling the media, should be teaching students at university. The fact that Maaruf Ali lobbied students to campaign against the creation of a Jewish society shows he does not keep these views to himself.

“He should be suspended from teaching immediately and Essex University must urgently investigate if he has pushed these antisemitic views on campus previously.”

Amanda Bowman, vice-president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, also condemned the lecturer. She said: “That Dr Maaruf Ali uses social media posts to express vile antisemitic views is abhorrent. We and the Union of Jewish Students will be contacting the university to express our disgust and to call for a full investigation into comments that include Holocaust denial, conspiracy theories and Israel-Nazi tropes.”

A spokesman for the Union of Jewish Students said: “We call for a full disciplinary investigation and the strongest possible sanction for a staff member who has engaged in racist hate speech and discrimination.”

Ali’s alleged comments were exposed after more than 200 students voted against the creation of a Jewish society at the university. More than 600 registered students voted on the ratification of the society, with 64% in favour and 36% against.

Bowman said: “This is racism, pure and simple. Those students who voted to exclude Jewish students should hang their heads in shame.”

A University of Essex spokeswoman said: “We are looking into the allegations as a matter of urgency in accordance with our zero-tolerance policy towards harassment and hate crime.”

Publicație :The Guardian și BBC News

All scientific writing can be improved by making it more accessible

Philip Rodenbough sets out a rule to help those writing up research dial in a balance that can pique public interest without boring scholarly peers

I’m coining a new term for scientific writing – “The J. Stat. Mech. Motherboard rule” – and I’m defining it here.

But first, some context. Across disciplines, scientific writing is hard. Not to be confused with science writing (which is what you read in the science section of, say, The New York Times, written primarily by journalists), scientific writing is produced by practising scientists for other practising scientists, and it’s what you read in Science and Nature and the thousands of other scientific journals making up scientific literature.

By its very nature, scientific writing is often highly technical and filled with jargon. It can be dense, opaque and impenetrable, even to its intended scientific audience. As a lecturer of scientific writing, I spend a lot of time thinking about not only how to write the clearest scientific prose possible, but also how to convince scientists that clear prose is a valuable and worthwhile goal. Sometimes I get pushback. One resistant line of thinking goes: “Yes, my manuscript is highly technical and uses a lot of jargon, but that’s unavoidable. The science is complicated, so the writing is going to be complicated.”

A common response to this stance, sometimes intended for authors of more general science writing, is, “Write as if you were explaining this to your grandmother.”

First of all, some grandmothers do have PhDs in science, so this is an unflattering recommendation that smacks of sexism and ageism. But also, such a rebuttal is ultimately poor advice. We should not be writing articles for Science in a way that is accessible to readers without a science background. That would be painful for the actual intended audience to read – nobody with a PhD in chemistry needs to read an analogy-filled explanation of “What is an atom?” to get to the central proposition of a chemistry paper.

To use a common tool of general science writing, I’ll help you to visualise my principle. Imagine you have a dial. On one end of the dial is the “write so anyone can understand it” mode, where you explain everything in painstakingly detailed metaphors and assume that your reader knows very little.

On the other end of the dial is “write only for yourself” mode, where you pack in all the obscure jargon that you picked up during your PhD studies and assume that your reader is right there with you. On one end is wide accessibility but writing that is pretty tedious for actual scientists to read. On the other end is low accessibility but an article that gets to the point for people who already know exactly what you are talking about.

As practising scientists and writers, where should we set our dial?

The J. Stat. Mech. Motherboard rule suggests that for most scientists the happy medium is to write as if you want your article to get picked up by a science-interest mainstream-media publication, for example Motherboard.

Motherboard is a science/tech magazine produced by Vice that defines itself thus: “Whether on the ground or on the web, Motherboard travels the world to uncover the tech and science stories that define what’s coming next for this quickly evolving planet of ours.”

What makes Motherboard so relevant here is that it often will dive into relatively obscure topics, and – let’s face it – a lot of scientists work on obscure topics.

For example, the Motherboard article “Researchers discover a pattern to the seemingly random distribution of prime numbers”, with the sub-headline “The pattern has a surprising similarity to the one seen in atom distribution in crystals”, talks about prime numbers and crystallography, even boasting a diagram of an X-ray diffractometry experiment. That’s some pretty technical stuff for a mainstream science-interest publication.

The source article for the story is “Uncovering multiscale order in the prime numbers via scattering” from the Journal of Statistical Mechanics: Theory and Experiment (J. Stat. Mech.). I’ll bet that after seeing the Motherboard article, the J. Stat. Mech. authors were pleased with themselves, not least because mainstream media coverage increases citations of scientific papers that have been sources for articles.

This story shows that even for theoretical statistical mechanics, multi-scale prime number order and crystallography, there is a general-interest audience out there who can be enticed by the topic.

Furthermore, the source article was not Science or Nature; it was an extremely specialised journal for a very specific technical audience. This means that no scientific writers – no matter how specialised – should be able to get away with excuses related to the highly technical nature of their topic. All technical writing is improved by making it more accessible – as long as we’re not completely re-explaining the very basics.

Social scientists, life scientists, physical scientists, computational scientists, all scientists should set the dial snugly between expert and clueless in order to compromise between accessibility and efficiency. You should write your manuscript as if you hope to get picked up as a source article for a story in Motherboard, even if you’re writing for a specialised publication such as the Journal of Statistical Mechanics.

The key to the J. Stat. Mech. Motherboard rule is to remember that you’re not starting from zero (the audience does have an interest in science), but you’re not going to get there with an opening sentence suited for your closest collaborator. That’s the method. Use it and profit.

Publicație :The Times

 

Labour sceptical of ‘electoral inducement’ tuition fee cut

Party’s Lifelong Learning Commission will look at longer-term ‘structures’ in contrast to government’s ‘short-term’ review, says Gordon Marsden

Labour’s Lifelong Learning Commission will look at longer-term collaborative and connected structures across education in the UK, while the party is “minded” to vote against any lowering of tuition fees arising from the government’s review but has not made a final decision.

Gordon Marsden, Labour’s shadow higher education minister, spoke after party leader Jeremy Corbyn announced the launch of the commission on 19 February.

The commission will help to develop Labour’s vision of a National Education Service, offering “free education from cradle to grave” (the party has pledged to abolish university tuition fees). The commission’s task will be to “devise an inclusive system of adult education to be implemented by the next Labour government that will transform the lives of millions and reskill our economy”, said Mr Corbyn.

Mr Marsden said that the commission would look at “connectivity” between different levels of education and also explore ideas from the recent Civic University Commission, led by Lord Kerslake.

The Lifelong Learning Commission is co-chaired by Estelle Morris, a former Labour education secretary, and Dave Ward, general secretary of the Communication Workers Union. Among its members are figures from vocational, further and higher education – with those from the last category including Amatey Doku, the National Union of Students’ vice-president for higher education, and Dave Phoenix, vice-chancellor of London South Bank University.

The future for universities should centre on “collaboration rather than the raw competition” envisaged by the Conservative government’s Higher Education and Research Act of 2017, an ethos that will be “less relevant for the success and health of universities in the 2020s”, argued Mr Marsden.

In a recent speech, Labour’s shadow education secretary, Angela Rayner, outlined a plan to overhaul the powers of the Office for Students – the market-style regulator created by the 2017 act. This would including ordering the OfS to “avoid university bankruptcies” and would end the Tories’ “failed free-market experiment” in higher education, she said.

Mr Marsden said that her speech should be seen as drawing together arguments that Labour made during the passage of the legislation, including rejecting the idea that the regulator should have a duty to promote competition.

“The OfS is still a young organisation. It can develop in all sorts of different ways,” he said.

Mr Marsden said that he has had “positive conversations” with Sir Michael Barber, the OfS chair, and Chris Millward, the director for fair access and participation at the OfS. He added that the OfS should “press the access agenda as strongly as possible as well press the diversity agenda”.

With leaks from the government’s review of post-18 education in England suggesting that it has considered plans to lower tuition fees to between £6,500 and £7,500, Mr Marsden was asked in a radio interview aired last week about Labour’s stance on such plans. The government may struggle to pass any such proposal through the House of Commons, as backbenchers including former universities minister Jo Johnson have warned that fee cuts would reduce university funding, including support for access.

Mr Marsden said that his comment in the interview had been that “we are minded – words matter – not to be supportive of things that just artificially raise or lower fee levels”. But the party would examine the final recommendations “before we make an absolutely final decision”, he added.

Labour’s Lifelong Learning Commission will be “looking for structures that are going to last 10 to 15 years”, he explained. “We are not looking at a funding review that, however well-intentioned members of it are, the government sees as very short term…as some kind of electoral inducement.”

Publicație :The Times

Going spare: Brexit could cut off access to feminist journal

Brexit copyright issues may prevent researchers from consulting Spare Rib, which for two decades served as ‘the most popular voice of women’s liberation’ in the UK

In 2015, the British Library digitised and made available to international researchers, students and activists through the Jisc Journals platform a complete run of the pioneering British feminist magazine Spare Rib. This vital resource may now have to be closed down.

A blog by Polly Russell, the library’s lead curator for contemporary politics and public life, explains the reasoning behind this. Because Spare Rib was published between 1972 and 1993, its content remains in copyright. As part of the digitisation process, the library successfully obtained permission from more than 1,000 contributors. Where it proved impossible to identify rights holders, the material was still made available under a European Union directive that allows cultural heritage institutions to provide access to such “orphan works”. About 57 per cent of the Spare Rib archive – some 11,000 articles and images from 2,700 contributors – benefits from this protection.

Yet should the UK leave the European Union without a deal, writes Ms Russell, the library has been “advised by the Intellectual Property Office that this legal exception will no longer apply. In those circumstances, the library would have to suspend access to the archive or be in breach of copyright. The remainder of the archive, for which permissions have been obtained, would not form a sufficiently coherent resource to be useful to researchers, so we would have to close the resource entirely.”

“Of all the perils looming with a possible ‘no-deal’ Brexit,” commented Lynne Segal, anniversary professor of psychology and gender studies at Birkbeck, University of London, “the unexpected effects on copyright laws may seem small fry.” Yet Spare Rib was “the most popular voice of women’s liberation for over 20 years in the heyday of feminism”, and “we surely know the invaluable significance of keeping archival evidence of our recent history, especially for a record as fiercely contested as second-wave feminism”.

Given that “women’s radical voices have always been so easily erased”, Professor Segal continued, it was crucial to retain “the evidence of their diverse, collective practices and shifting aspirations for transforming personal lives, cultural understandings and institutional structures seeking to build genuinely egalitarian, caring worlds fast forgotten in historical records”.

In the event of a successful withdrawal agreement, Ms Russell’s blog goes on, the issue would be deferred but perhaps not resolved because “we understand that the orphan works exception – as with other EU laws – would remain in place at least until at least the end of the transition period, at the end of next year”.

While acknowledging that it was no substitute for the complete archive, the blog stresses that “the curated British Library Spare Rib site, with its contextual essays and selected magazine content, will still be accessible”.

Publicație :The Times

Repository requirements a deal-breaker for Plan S Down Under

Australian and New Zealand open access advocates want more attention paid to ‘green’ model

Research funding agencies in Australia and New Zealand will not be able to support Europe’s Plan S unless rules around repositories are watered down, according to open access advocates in both countries.

A joint submission says that repository provisions in the Plan S implementation strategy are overly prescriptive and would be cripplingly expensive – and in some cases technically impossible – to implement.

“In Australia and New Zealand, university repositories are the primary mechanism by which open access is supported,” says the submission, jointly prepared by the Australasian Open Access Strategy Group and the Council of Australian University Librarians.

“Without adequate support for these kinds of institutional repositories it is unlikely that Australian funding agencies could adopt the plan, and universities would struggle to comply with its mandate.”

Plan S, which has been endorsed by many European funding agencies and is drawing increasing interest in other continents, will require academics to make publicly funded research freely accessible at the point of publication from January 2020 onwards.

While the aims of the initiative are widely supported in research circles, implementation details are causing angst. They include a perceived preference for research papers to be made available in open access journals – the “gold” model – as opposed to the “green” approach of posting articles in openly accessible repositories.

AOASG director Virginia Barbour said that some of the implementation plan’s requirements for repositories were “simply not feasible” – not only in Australasia, but right around the world.

She said that these provisions “would mean most repositories were excluded”, with only a handful – for example, the Europe PubMed Central database of health and biomedical research – able to meet the requirements.

The two groups say that most of the current criteria are unnecessary and some cannot be met by many existing repository platforms. They include requirements for an “automated manuscript ingest facility” and a programming interface that allows machines to access the content.

The submission echoes concerns that early career researchers could be severely disadvantaged by the initiative if it prevents them publishing in prestigious journals at risk of being deemed off-limits under the initiative.

It also says that the implementation plan does not specify whether responsibility for bankrolling open access lies with research institutions or funding bodies. Either option would be difficult in Australia.

Universities are reeling from the recent freezing of a funding scheme to support indirect research costs, while funding councils are already forced to reject about 85 per cent of grant applications for lack of money.

There are no immediate prospects of Australia’s research councils being given extra federal funding to meet Plan S implementation costs. The government said that it has no intention of signing up to the initiative, while the opposition will only commit to considering the idea as part of review if it wins this year’s election.

Publishers warn that premium journals could be put out of business by Plan S. But the stakes are also high for researchers in countries that do not sign up. Australian citations could plummet if the global research community can access papers from most nations immediately, but has to wait a year to read articles by Antipodeans.

CAUL president Margie Jantti said that her organisation “would be advocating for Australia to be a signatory” if its concerns were adequately addressed.

Publicație :The Times

As Students Struggle With Stress and Depression, Colleges Act as Counselors

Backpacks representing students who have committed suicide are part of a traveling exhibition, seen here at Ithaca College.CreditKristin Butler

The email set off alarms at Ithaca College.

“I’m literally fighting for my life but staying safe,” 22-year-old Christopher Biehn emailed a professor in late September. “I won’t be in class today (or perhaps for a bit) & just pray I won’t be hospitalized long-term.”

As Mr. Biehn prepared to check into a psychiatric ward four hours from campus, a crisis team from the private liberal arts college in central New York swung into action. Shortly after Mr. Biehn wrote to his professor, a campus safety officer went to his apartment to make sure he was O.K. A social worker from the college reached out to discuss academic options as he worked to manage his bipolar disorder.

Two weeks later, after returning to his home in Medford, N.J., for treatment, he applied for a medical leave of absence from the college — his sixth leave in four years.

In extensive interviews, Mr. Biehn recounted his experiences. He has also written about them in a blog and in Ithaca College’s student paper. He started a grass-roots social media campaign to promote acceptance for mood disorders, inspired to share his story in hopes of helping others.

 Publicație :The New York Times