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Weekly News Digest
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April 30, 2020 — In addition to this week's NewsBreaks article and the monthly NewsLink Spotlight, Information Today, Inc. (ITI) offers Weekly News Digests that feature recent product news and company announcements. Watch for additional coverage to appear in the next print issue of Information Today.
CLICK HERE to view more Weekly News Digest items.
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'Georgia Copyright Loss at High Court Could Jolt Many States' by Jordan S. Rubin
Jordan S. Rubin writes the following for Bloomberg Law:Georgia lost a close U.S. Supreme Court case over the state’s ability to copyright its annotated legal code, in a ruling heralded by public access advocates over dissent that lamented its disruptive impact on states’ existing business arrangements. Copyright protection doesn’t extend to annotations in the state’s official annotated code, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote for a 5-4 majority on [April 27] that crossed ideological lines. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh joined Roberts. The high court clarified the scope of the ‘government edicts doctrine,’ which had previously barred copyright in materials created by judges. The doctrine’s logic also applies to materials created by legislatures, Roberts wrote. Because Georgia’s annotations are authored by an arm of the legislature in the course of its official duties, the doctrine bars copyright here, too. … Public.Resource.Org, the pro-access organization that won the dispute, is pleased that the court ‘rejected the possibility that a full understanding of the law could be made available only to those who can afford to pay for “first-class” access,’ said Goldstein & Russell’s Eric Citron, who represented the group. He said they’re looking forward to helping states expand access to their legal codes and they hope this leads to greater public engagement with the law. … [T]he ruling ‘will likely come as a shock to the 25 other jurisdictions—22 States, 2 Territories, and the District of Columbia—that rely on arrangements similar to Georgia’s to produce annotated codes,’ Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Samuel Alito and partially by Justice Stephen Breyer. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg wrote her own dissent, joined by Breyer. For more information, read the article.
COVID-19 NEWS: Library Resources From SLA and IFLA
SLA and IFLA both posted resource roundups for libraries.Visit Partner Resources from SLA for a list of “SLA partners [that] are developing new products and services and/or making existing products and services more accessible to special librarians during the COVID-19 pandemic. … The list is being updated on a regular basis, so check back often for current information.” Visit Key Resources for Libraries in Responding to the Coronavirus Pandemic from IFLA for regularly updated, publicly available information pertaining to topics such as “Library closures around the world,” “Managing different approaches to restrictions,” “Providing services remotely,” and “Reopening libraries.”
COVID-19 NEWS: CCC Plans a May 5 Virtual Town Hall About Building Digital Resiliency
Copyright Clearance Center (CCC) will host a virtual publishers town hall, Thinking Beyond the Crisis: Building Digital Resiliency, on May 5 at 10 a.m. EDT (register here). It will cover “the exceptional work global publishers in every field are doing to make the shift seamlessly to a digital environment. The program will share insights on how to confront business challenges caused by the coronavirus emergency and offer direction to look beyond the crisis and envision the shape of an industry transformed.”The goals for the town hall are as follows: - Learn how organizations are seeing beyond the crisis to identify opportunities, leverage new technologies, and ultimately create and embrace a transformed digital industry.
- Discover trends that industry experts are learning from publishers as they work to build digital resiliency.
- Engage with a broad set of publishing colleagues to share the experiences the industry is confronting today.
- Share expectations and plans to navigate the new reality.
For more information, read the press release.
COVID-19 NEWS: ReadCube Implements COVID-19 Research Pass Program for Free Content Access
ReadCube introduced the COVID-19 Research Pass (CRP) program “to facilitate access to literature related to COVID-19 research.” It “provides direct access to over 26 million articles and is available to anyone studying or writing about COVID-19” after they complete the application process.Publishers involved in the program include Springer Nature and Wiley. “Rather than pre-filtering access to specific articles related to COVID-19, the CRP allows researchers to access any article from participating publishers they may need while studying COVID-19, including both open access and content behind paywalls. The ability to access related and prior work can be particularly helpful to researchers studying ways of improving therapies, clinical, and public health outcomes. For example, topics such as ventilators or respiratory syndromes often remain behind paywalls. Additionally, the program can support COVID-19 researchers who are now working remotely and require remote access to literature.” For more information, read the blog post.
Frontiers and Clarivate Unveil Reviewer Recognition Service
Frontiers joined forces with Clarivate to introduce the Reviewer Recognition Service, which is powered by the Web of Science and will be rolled out across Frontiers’ journals throughout 2020. It “allows reviewers to easily track, verify and record all their review and editorial contributions. And by integrating the service into Frontiers’ Collaborative Review Platform, reviewers can also upload contributions automatically to their Publons profile.”Publons, which was acquired by Clarivate in 2007, is now part of the Web of Science. “Frontiers’ transparent, efficient and rigorous peer review process would not be possible without its dedicated community of more than 100,000 reviewers and editors. It is hoped this new partnership with Clarivate will create an even stronger research community and make the review process an easier and more rewarding experience.” For more information, read the blog post.
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Brandi Scardilli
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