The PEER (Publishing and the Ecology of European Research) project has announced its upcoming calls for tender on research about OA. From the announcement:
Three strands of research will be tendered:
Behavioural Research: Authors and Users vis-a-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.
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.
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 open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
