Highlighting Temple TAP Awardees

As part of Temple University Libraries’ celebration of Open Education Week, we’d like to highlight some of the many Temple faculty who have been awarded a grant via the Textbook Affordability Project to adopt an open textbook, adapt content available through the library, or create an open educational resource/open assignment. Some Temple faculty are also working with our North Broad Press to create an open textbook. Since 2011, the TAP has granted awards to over 85 faculty across nearly every discipline at Temple University and saved students over one million dollars!

Interested in learning more? Take a look at some of these ideas and example projects; reach out to the subject librarian serving your discipline, or for more information on open educational resources (OER), please visit Discovering Open Educational Resources.

Abdullah headshotQuaiser Abdullah, Communication and Social Influence, Klein College of Media and Communication

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
CSI 2401: Intercultural/Cross-Cultural Conflict 

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Primarily to provide accessibility to students (cost and availability).

How did OER help your students?
It definitely saves them money. It allowed all students to have access to the materials (even if they did not have technology at home) they had access on campus or anywhere there was technology available. It allowed them to interact with the materials outside of class without having to carry texts to various places.

Anni headshotEleni Anni, Biology, College of Science and Technology

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
My Textbook Affordability Project award was for a proposal to switch from a textbook based course to a non-textbook taught course which would take advantage of the expanding Open Education Resources. The course BIOL3354: Neural Basis of Behavior is taken by CST majors in Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience, and Biology students, as well as by CLA and Engineering students.

I am using increasingly OERs to supplement the textbook material in the other courses I teach:

    • BIOL3352: Systems Neuroscience 
    • BIOL3358: Cellular & Molecular Neuroscience 
    • BIOL3361: Molecular Neuropharmacology 
    • BIOL3380: Regenerative Biology, a course I designed in 2019 is based entirely on literature articles and OERs

In addition, I have used OERs for BIOL3080: Directed Readings in Molecular Neuropharmacology and supervised Research in Neuroscience projects (BIOL 3082, BIOL 4391, and BIOL 4591).

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Textbooks for a course are usually underused. In my experience only 1/3 of the textbook chapters is used for a course. The content of the remaining 2/3 of the textbook does not align well with our courses. OERs offer a variety of teaching material to fit different levels of learning students in a classroom.

How did OER help your students?
Use of OERs help students save money spent otherwise on underused textbooks which in my field become also outdated in a couple of years.

Brown headshotDavid Brown, Advertising and Public Relations, Klein College of Media and Communication

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I have used open educational resources in my capstone public relations courses…along with my special topics course, “Politics, Power and PR” and our Bateman competition class which is among the most rigorous campaign capstone course that routinely attracts our highest performing public relations students.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I chose open educational resources because the information in the field is changing so rapidly that most textbooks are obsolete as soon as they are published. By using OER, we get the most current information and expertise in the industry that a student can immediately apply to their work…just as it works in the real world.

How did OER help your students?
Open educational resources helped my students by helping them to refine their research skills while eliminating a financial barrier that often comes with having to buy expensive textbooks that they may not use beyond the class. It also helped me to stay plugged into the most recent scholarly and industry research in keeping my own skills sharp and nimble.

Caliendo headshotGuillermo Caliendo, Communication and Social Influence, Klein College of Media and Communication

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
CSI 3896: Rhetorical Criticism

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Because it makes readings and exercises much more accessible to students.

How did OER help your students?
It has helped my students educationally and financially.

Chang headshotIsabelle Chang, Psychology, College of Liberal Arts

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
My proposals were accepted by the Temple University Library’s Textbook Affordability Project to use open educational resources (OER) for PSYCH 1003: Statistics for Psychology (2017) and PSYCH 0825: Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (2018). I have now adopted OER for all of my courses this year.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
The benefits of OER go far beyond saving money. The results of studies* based on my own classes show that:

    • Final grades in the OER class were on a par with the traditional textbook class.
    • OER equalize student engagement and performance by narrowing the dispersions of page views, on-time assignment submissions (OTAS), attendance, and final grades.
    • OER increased attendance and lessened excessive dependence on learning management system (LMS) course materials recorded in the traditional class.
    • The indirect effect of attendance on final grades was stronger than the direct effect of OTAS in the OER class, indicating students can better assimilate course content and comprehend lectures when they had access to textbooks, thanks to the “same page” effect. In contrast, attendance could not generate as much of an indirect effect when mediating OTAS on final grades in the traditional textbook class.
    • Furthermore, moderation test results suggest that the availability of textbooks is a factor influencing student course success.

It appears that OER are more important than ever in elevating overall student academic success.

How did OER help your students?
The “same page” effect of OER might be the most beneficial one for students. Instructors can project the text on the projector interchange with their teaching notes on the PowerPoint slides and/or other instructional related technology or devices. Instructors should encourage students to have the OER text on their laptop so that they can follow the instructor on what is being discussed in the lecture and where to locate the full materials in the text. Hence, the instructor and students are on the “same page” which contributes to better assimilation of course content and comprehension of lectures.

*The manuscript of this study has been accepted for publication in one of the journals in higher education. In addition, this study has been presented in the following conferences:

    • AAC&U’s General Education, Pedagogy, and Assessment conference, February 20-22, 2020 in Jacksonville, FL.
    • The 18th Annual Faculty Conference on Teaching Excellence, Center for the Advancement of Teaching, Temple University, January 7, 2020.
    • OpenCon Philly, Temple University, November 1, 2019.

Whitney Collins, Advertising, Klein College of Media and Communication

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
ADV 1004: Introduction to Marketing

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I was sensitive to two emerging trends. First was the rising costs of a college education of which texts are a component. Second was the availability of quality, online, peer-reviewed open sources. My interest was piqued by Temple University who challenged me to think about how to leverage open educational resources in a meaningful way.

How did OER help your students?
I’d like to think there were several benefits the students experienced, as class evaluations and feedback suggested. Two would be personal finances and academic achievement. (1) Personal finance, meaning for the course there was no investment required for texts. All resources were open and virtual. Students saved money! (2) Academic achievement because over the course of the term the students actually collaborated to write their own Intro to Marketing Primer. This class developed text was a reference for their ‘open book’ final exam – a built-in incentive for them to ensure their work was thorough and accurate. They did a great job!!

Corrales Martin headshotNorma Corrales Martin, Spanish, College of Liberal Arts

*Norma is currently publishing an open textbook with North Broad Press.

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I have used an Open Educational Resource in my Spanish Conversational Review class, a fourth semester class, that stresses conversation using the vocabulary and structures used in previous semesters.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I have been teaching Spanish using music for more than 20 years. I put together my experience and knowledge of Latin music to create a textbook based entirely on songs that review a particular Spanish structure and that can address a communicative goal.

How did OER help your students?
Some of the students comments had to do with saving money by not buying a textbook, a more targeted learning experience, the syllabus and course materials were together in one place and more real life Spanish.

Hope Culver headshotSherri Hope Culver, Media Studies and Production, Klein College of Media and Communication

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
MSP1655: The Business of Media

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
The course deals with topical issues in the media industry. There is simply no way for a textbook to respond quickly enough to the changes happening in the industry each year.

How did OER help your students?
Of course, the #1 way it helped my students was in cost savings. They didn’t have to purchase a textbook. (Although I did encourage students to assess their own learning methods and print the alternate materials if they felt that would improve their ability to learn.)

It also sent a message to the students that the course and my approach was going to be topical and “of the moment” as much as possible. Using open educational resources allowed us to use sources that dealt with more recent acquisitions or financial situations, changes in media content and programming, etc.

And, students were able to easily access all course materials wherever they were since all materials were available online. It also allowed me to more easily incorporate podcasts and other media content as assignments.

Dzomba headshotBari Dzomba, Health Services Administration and Policy, College of Public Health

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
Master of Science in Health Informatics Program, Course HIM 5129: Health Data Analytics

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
The field of health informatics, and sub-discipline data science is a fast moving field and traditional learning materials such as textbooks quickly become obsolete as new tools and methodologies are designed. It just made sense to utilize open educational resources for this particular course as there is an abundant amount of material available given the very nature of open source software.

How did OER help your students?
Our students will be entering the job market with skills in leading analytics software and methods without any additional cost for the students.

Faunce headshotRob Faunce, English, College of Liberal Arts

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
ENGL 0802: Analytical Reading and Writing
ENGL 0922: Shakespeare in the Movies
ENGL 2696: Technical Writing

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Open educational resources strengthen our classes by allowing students access to sustainably reusable, high-quality materials that enhance their educational experience at no cost.

How did OER help your students?
Students can access material at any time from anyplace in the world, which aligns with our faster-paced and technological-driven world

Flynn headshotNatalie Flynn, Earth and Environmental Science, College of Science and Technology

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
EES 0836: Disasters: Geology V Hollywood
EES 0837: Evolution and Extinction
EES 2001: Physical Geology 

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Over my many years of teaching, I discovered an increasing number of students did not have access to the educational materials. Many science courses require/request more than one textbook due to the lecture/lab style. The lack of access to quality learning materials created an intolerable educational gap that degraded my intended pedagogical style. After various attempts to fill these gaps, I became involved in the Textbook Affordability Project, thanks to Steven Bell and his wonderful team.

How did OER help your students?
As a result of knowing that all of my students have access to quality learning materials, I have been able to incorporate active and student centered learning practices. Students are able (required) to read and review material before and outside of class which allows for richer topic discussions and so much more.

Fukawa-Connelly headshotTim Fukawa-Connelly, Middle Secondary Education, College of Education

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
EDUC 1017: College Algebra

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I am committed to lowering the cost for students in order to make a high-quality education more affordable and accessible. Moreover, given the plethora of high-quality OER resources that have been developed, especially in mathematics, it makes sense to do so. The College Algebra textbook is typically used for only a semester, and, when it was costing above $100, and, used or rental options were not meaningfully cheaper due to the alignment with the publisher’s online bundle (including an online homework system). The primary work was to find and align our work with another homework portal that would be free to the students!

How did OER help your students?
As always, lowering the barrier to participation allows students immediate access. They all had their text on the first day. They were all able to use the homework portal all semester! Sometimes, in the past, they would register for a free trial which would expire, and then they would be locked out for a while until they could afford to buy access. Or, they would create a second account, and no longer have access to prior work, or… In short, students were more prepared, more able to do their work, and, we’ve been quite happy with the results.

Harper headshotChris Harper, Journalism, Klein College of Media and Communication

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
JRN 3101: Journalism Law and Ethics

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
The cost of textbooks in a law course run nearly $100, which I decided was asking too much for the students to pay. Even the used books ran at least $70.

How did OER help your students?
The main help was elimination of the textbook, but the open educational resource also allowed me to provide digital access to the materials without a copyright problem.

Higgins headshotShawn Higgins, Academic Coordinator for Bridge Program, Temple University Japan

*Shawn is currently publishing an open textbook with North Broad Press.

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
AMST 0862: First Person America
TUJ 1001: Bridge Seminar
TUJ 1002: Academic Research for International Students

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Knowledge shouldn’t be behind a paywall! If people want to learn, then let them learn!

How did OER help your students?
The free e-textbook I wrote replaced a $90 textbook, saving my class of around 20 new students $1,800 each semester. I lightened backpacks and saved trees by adopting a free e-textbook. Less postural imbalance and more carbon dioxide filtering!

Jacobson headshotSara Jacobson, Trial Advocacy, Beasley School of Law

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
We used an open educational resource for the Integrated Trial Advocacy Program, Introduction to Trial Advocacy, and for a section of Introduction to Trial Advocacy that we teach to students from China in our international LLM program each summer.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Once we knew the resource was available, this was an easy choice. We want to save students money where we can.

How did OER help your students?
This helped our students two ways. First and foremost, it saved them the cost of buying the book. Secondly, because the resource was available online, it was available to them any time they had access to the internet, without worrying about whether they had their book with them.

Laufgraben headshotJodie Levine Laufgraben, Policy, Organizational and Leadership Studies, College of Education

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I do not require a textbook in any of my courses. I participated in the Textbook Affordability Project when I created my Introduction to Higher Education course.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
The students in my Introduction to Higher Education course read all primary source documents that are available as open educational resources. There are textbooks that cover the history of higher education but I wanted to expose students to documents that provide students with a sense of what was being written and said about higher education through time. For example, they read the actual charters of institutions, magazine articles about student life on campus and court cases.

How did OER help your students?
Students gained a better sense of the different periods in American Higher Education by reading materials from the different eras. Also, they get exposed to different types of documents from news stories to government reports to videos.

Neel headshotJaclyn Neel, Greek and Roman Classics, College of Liberal Arts

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I use open educational resources to some degree in every class that I teach. If there is an open resource available that is as good as the traditional resource, I will choose open every time.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
OER are more accessible, in every sense of the word. I want my students to not only learn about the many amazing resources available for my discipline (Classics, the ancient world of Greece and Rome), but also to learn how to approach these resources in an informed and educated way. I also want them to be able to share their learning experience with friends and family outside the classroom, and to be able to revisit topics of interest after the semester ends!

How did OER help your students?
Not only do I save students money, but I can also enrich their educational experience. In Latin this year, I was able to introduce short videos. Everyone thinks Latin is a dead language, but in my class we watch movies that let students learn Latin by taking tours of ancient Rome!

Neuber headshotAmanda Neuber, Honors Program

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
Honors Introduction to Psychology

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Three reasons: to help alleviate the significant financial burden of purchasing traditional textbooks – books that are outdated almost as soon as they are printed; to destigmatize the idea that open source materials are less reliable or credible; and, to serve as an advocate for use of open source materials in all Honors classes.

How did OER help your students?
Students were appreciative of an online open-source textbook because of the accessibility, sustainability, and cost savings. Furthermore, since it lives online and could be edited or updated at anytime, the examples used to illustrate theories were current and interesting.

Nypaver headshotAlisha Nypaver, Music Studies, Boyer College of Music and Dance

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I developed an alternative textbook with listening guides for my World Musics and Cultures class and I adopted an OER textbook for the online sections of Exploring Music.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I used to use a $69 online eBook platform for the Exploring Music courses and every semester I would get emails from students saying that they couldn’t afford the book so the had to drop the course.

How did OER help your students?
The OER book wasn’t perfect, but it provided a solid foundation upon which I could build a more robust and customized book that I was able to embed directly into Canvas. Students really appreciate not having to spend additional money to purchase a text and like the convenience of having everything on one page instead of having to link out to a publisher site.

Phillips headshotJacqueline Phillips, Kinesiology, College of Public Health

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
KINS 1221 & 1222: Principles of Anatomy I and II 

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
My primary goal in choosing an open textbook was to cut down cost for my students. Our former textbook bundle was very expensive and did not match our learning objectives for these courses very well so I looked at integrating an open educational resource as an opportunity to improve several aspects of these courses.

How did OER help your students?
Not only has the affordability of this course greatly increased, but now I have the ability to edit our textbook. This has enabled me to cut out sections of the textbook that are not relevant to our learning objectives while also adding materials to supplement certain topics. Molding our textbook has drastically increased the clarity of focus for students. Now my students have a much easier time reading the text and have overall been more successful with our courses.

Pratt headshotGary Pratt, Intellectual Heritage, College of Liberal Arts

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I’ve use open educational resources in both my Intellectual Heritage I and II courses.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I try to use open resources as often as possible to reduce the cost of texts, to make the course materials as accessible as possible, and to create opportunities for new ways of learning.

How did OER help your students?
Students were only able to access the materials easily and from almost anywhere. Working with students, we were able to create new and different texts: annotated, interactive, or illustrated editions. In short, students were making the course.

Ramella headshotDaniele Ramella, Chemistry, College of Science and Technology

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
CHEM 1031 and 1032: General Chemistry I and II.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Cost. When I first joined Temple, one semester worth of chemistry materials could cost up to $300 to each student! Thanks to OER, I lowered that cost to about $35 per student. We tracked the academic outcomes and it didn’t make any difference! I eventually moved to some non-OER because it is virtually free to students under a subscription they anyways need to purchase for other classes.

How did OER help your students?
Financially. And removes the disadvantage felt by students who cannot afford traditional textbooks.

Roehl headshotWesley Roehl, Tourism and Hospitality Management, School of Sport, Tourism and Hospitality Management

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I’ve used OER in both undergraduate and graduate level classes. In THM 1311, Business of Tourism and Hospitality Management, all of the assigned material is from OER sources. The same is true in THM 5345, Understanding Tourism in the 21st Century. In another master’s level class, THM 5601, Service Industry Analytics, I use a mix of OER materials and industry-oriented trade paperbacks.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Because of the flexibility they gave me to focus on the content I found most relevant to my course objectives and because of my concern that the price of traditional textbooks was a burden on my students.

How did OER help your students?
I think this strategy helps students by making it easier to expose them to a variety of voices, perspectives, and content beyond what they might experience from a single traditional textbook. The price issue can’t be ignored, either.

Scarpulla headshotMichelle Scarpulla, Social and Behavioral Sciences, College of Public Health

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I used open educational resources in SBS3105 Fundamentals of Health Education.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
I decided to do this because I couldn’t find a textbook that covered all of the content I feel is important for this class. All of the textbooks I reviewed had some of it, but none of them included it all. I was already supplementing with online articles and videos, so it just seemed to make more sense to fully implement this in my class.

How did OER help your students?
It has helped my students in a number of ways. First, they do not have to pay for a textbook, which most of them are very grateful for. Secondly, there is no delay in the beginning of the semester while students wait for books they have ordered online to arrive. Finally, it allows for hearing multiple views on a topic. Since there are readings from so many different sources, they are able to “hear” from many different experts on the content.

Udoeyo headshotFelix Udoeyo, Civil and Environmental Engineering, College of Engineering

*Felix recently published an open textbook with North Broad Press.

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I have used open educational resources in two of my classes, namely CET 3145: Structural Analysis and CET 3333: Soil Mechanics.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Being aware of the financial burden on our kids in the college, and in a bid to help in a small measure to lighten this burden, I accepted the challenge by the Library to make educational materials affordable to the students via open educational resources.

How did OER help your students?
At the end of the courses, a questionnaire was administered to the students to find out how helpful to their learning were the open educational resources provided. Here are some of their comments:

    • “Using this method was much more effective, straight to the point and with no unnecessary examples.”
    • “It was easier than using textbooks, more accessible and cost effective.”
    • “New materials were accessible.”
    • “Alternative text is more practical and consistent, easy to go through and to understand.”
    • “Did not need to buy textbook, and all information was concise.”
    • “All notes were clear and provided good examples.”

Udoeyo headshotElvis Wagner, Middle Secondary Education, College of Education

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
FLED 5429: Curriculum and Methods in Foreign Language Education

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
This course is part of a two-course sequence. With the other course in the sequence, I assign a textbook. It’s a very good textbook, and I think it’s beneficial for my students. But it’s also very expensive–$125 for a new copy. I was also using a textbook in the FLED 5429 course that I didn’t particularly like, so I decided to ditch the textbook and use a collection of book chapters and journal articles available for free through the library.

How did OER help your students?
The materials I used instead of the textbook work better than the textbook, and it’s much easier to update the materials and also customize the content by swapping out chapters/articles for more recent and/or more relevant material. And it saves the students money!

Wu headshotJingwei Wu, Epidemiology and Biostatistics, College of Public Health

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
I used an open educational resource in teaching my graduate-level College of Public Health core course: Introduction to Biostatistics.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
Both students and instructors will benefit from an open educational resource: students can save a tremendous amount of money on the cost of textbooks and access the augmented class materials at any time; instructors can enjoy freedom and wisdom in selecting and customizing course materials that fit the competencies of their classes.

How did OER help your students?
Unlike teaching with a traditional textbook, using an OpenStax resource (such as Introductory Statistics) and Temple licensed streaming video (Films on Demand) content provides free access to high-quality, peer-reviewed, learning materials. Being Open can increase the transparency of the source material and facilitates more interaction between the instructor and student. In addition, the students indicated that the Open resources were very helpful and would use the materials beyond the end of the course.

Zusai headshotDai Zusai, Economics, College of Liberal Arts

*Dai is currently publishing an open textbook with North Broad Press.

Which course(s) have you integrated an open educational resource?
Mathematics for economics, both for upper undergraduate and first-year graduate students.

Why did you choose an open educational resource?
No single book can meet diverse needs of my students and also our learning goals.
I can guide my students to other resources as problem sets and secondary references,
while writing an open textbook as a backbone to connect them.

How did OER help your students?
Each student finds a book that best fits with the own interests and needs for each part in the course. Besides, incoming students can easily access those open resources in advance and prepare better.

2020 Call for Proposals: Temple-Faculty Authored Open Textbooks

Publishing, Temple University Press, , , ,

North Broad Press is excited to launch our spring 2020 call for open textbook proposals. We’re looking for faculty members to author or edit open textbooks in their fields of study. All Temple University faculty are eligible to apply. Faculty whose proposals are selected will receive a stipend of $5,000.

The application is available here. The deadline for proposals is April 3, 2020. All applicants will be notified by April 24, 2020.

About us
North Broad Press is a joint publishing project between Temple University Press and Temple University Libraries. We publish works of scholarship, both new and reissued, from the Temple University community. Examples include open textbooks written, edited, or compiled by Temple faculty; previously out-of-print books written by Temple faculty or published by the Press; and born digital projects produced by Temple faculty or staff.

Check out our latest open textbook: Structural Analysis by Felix Udoeyo.

What is an open textbook?
An open textbook is a textbook licensed under a Creative Commons license and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers, and members of the public. Print-on-demand copies are also made available at cost. Open textbooks save students money and improve learning outcomes by ensuring that all students have access to their textbook on the first day of class.

What does the work involve?
As author, the faculty member is responsible for writing the text, finding and/or creating suitable images and figures, and clearing any necessary permissions. As editor, the faculty member is responsible for finding contributors, ensuring content requirements and deadlines are met, communicating feedback, and writing an introduction for the volume. Faculty members will keep the copyright to their book and will be able to choose the Creative Commons license that best suits the project.

Will this be peer reviewed?
Yes! All North Broad Press projects go through the peer review process to ensure the accuracy, effectiveness, and appropriateness of the text.

Have questions about your proposal or would like to discuss it before submitting? Please contact Mary Rose Muccie and Alicia Pucci.

Why Temple Researchers Publish OA

OA Publishing Fund, Publishing, , ,

promotional banner for open access week

This week is Open Access Week, a yearly international celebration that aims to increase awareness about open access (scholarship that is free to read and reuse). Most academic work is locked up behind a paywall, available only to those who are affiliated with a college or university. Many Temple faculty members and graduate students choose to publish in open access journals in order to make their work more widely available to readers around the world.

The Libraries support open access publishing by Temple researchers through our Open Access Publishing Fund. When faculty and graduate students apply for the fund, we ask them why they have chosen to publish open access. Here are a few of the responses we have received this year:

“I prefer to publish open access because it increases accessibility and visibility. With an open access publication, I can be confident that my lab’s work will be accessible to everyone, free of charge and without having to wait for an embargo period.”
-David Smith, Assistant Professor, Psychology

“The open access nature of the journal is well-suited to our article, which addresses traffic calming via the use of non-asphalt materials for paving road surfaces, making streets safer for pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorized vehicles. Such paving materials are more common in the developing world, which was noted by one of the article reviewers. Publishing in an open access journal enhances access to the article by scholars in developing countries, where access to more conventional academic journals may be restricted due to cost or other barriers.”
-Jeremy Mennis, Professor, Environmental Studies

“This research is about the ecology of invasive species, which are an increasingly urgent problem that affect natural systems across the globe. It is important to make this research accessible to the scientific community and other non-academic stakeholders who are studying or affected by invasive species.”
-Amy Freestone, Associate Professor, Biology

“It is good to publish in an open-access journal because this format allows broader sharing of our studies. In addition, being digital, online article is published faster than the traditional journal article that takes over 4-6 months for printing an issue. Being open access, everyone worldwide can read our article without having to afford a costly subscription.”
-Marion Chan, Associate Professor, Lewis Katz School of Medicine

“The study aims to assess the relative importance of both environmental and socioeconomic neighborhood factors in the prediction of A. albopictus’ (one of the main transmitters of Zika virus) presence in Southeast Pennsylvania using MaxEnt (open source software) machine-learning algorithm. The study uses exclusively free available data and software to provide knowledge about the main drivers and current distribution of a vector species in South East Pennsylvania. This knowledge is relevant not only for academia but for others professionals working or interested on mosquito prevention planning such as public health officials. The free availability of this publication will provide access for these stakeholders to information that otherwise would be restricted for general use. We believe that publication in an open access journal will boost the impact of the article within and beyond academia.”
-Daniel Wiese, PhD student, Geography and Urban Studies

“The paper presents a school-based preventive dental program in the Republic of Armenia, as well as its results and recommendations to local stakeholders. In this middle-income country, most of the universities and public institutions do not have institutional access to mainstream academic journals. Publishing open access will allow readers in Armenia and in other low-income settings to get access to this paper and possibly replicate the intervention and its results.”
-Hamlet Gasoyan, PhD student, College of Public Health

2019-2020 OA Publishing Fund

OA Publishing Fund,

**Please note: as of 10/30/19 the OA Publishing Fund has been exhausted for the 2019-2020 year. We will have more funds beginning on July 1, 2020.**

We are excited to announce that the Libraries will continue our Open Access Publishing Fund in 2019-2020. The fund is open to all current Temple faculty members. Current postdoctoral fellows, residents, and graduate students may also apply, as long as there is at least one faculty member listed as a co-author on the article.

Authors with a journal article that has been accepted or is under consideration by an open access publisher are encouraged to apply. Authors simply fill out a brief application with their information, a copy of the article, and a copy of the journal acceptance letter (if available). Funds will be available on a first come, first served basis. The Libraries will aim to make a final decision regarding the application within two weeks’ time. If the request is approved, Libraries will transfer funds to authors’ research fund or departmental account. The Libraries cannot reimburse authors or pay publishers directly.

Applicant Eligibility

  • Applicants must be a current Temple University faculty member OR a current postdoctoral fellow/resident/graduate student with a faculty member listed as a co-author.
  • Applicants with external grant funding that could cover, either in whole or in part, the cost of any publication and processing fees are ineligible.
  • Applicants must agree to deposit a copy of their publication in our Digital Library, or any future library repository.

Publication Eligibility

  • The publication must take the form of a peer-reviewed journal article.
  • Many subscription journals now offer an open access option in which authors can choose to pay a fee to make their article open access. These publications are sometimes called “hybrid” open access journals. Articles in “hybrid” journals are not supported.
  • The journal must be listed in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). The DOAJ is a community-curated online directory that indexes high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals.
  • The publisher must be a member of the Open Access Scholarly Publishing Association (OASPA), or clearly follow the membership criteria of the organization.
  • Because the Libraries already cover 50% of the APC for BioMed Central journals, these journals are not eligible.

Additional Limitations

  • Each applicant may request up to $1,500 total per fiscal year. This amount may be split across multiple applications so long as funds are available.
  • For articles with multiple Temple authors, the per article payment is capped at $3,000.
  • Funding will cover publication and processing fees only. Funds may not be used for reprints, color illustration fees, non-open access page charges, permissions fees, web hosting for self-archiving, or other expenses not directly related to open access fees.
  • For applicants who have not yet submitted for publication, requests will be conditionally approved awaiting official acceptance by the publisher. All conditional approvals will expire six months after notification. Applicants must provide a copy of the acceptance letter before the invoice is processed.
  • Fees are pro-rated for multi-authored articles. Co-authors from outside of Temple are not supported. If an article includes non-Temple authors, the APC will be divided equally among all authors and then the Temple authors’ portion will be funded. For example, if the APC is $2000, and there are four authors, two of whom are from Temple, the authors can apply for $1000 from the fund ($500 each).

Attribution Requirement

  • Authors who receive support must include the following statement in their acknowledgements: Publication of this article was funded in part by the Temple University Libraries Open Access Publishing Fund.

Download a copy of the application form here.

Questions? Contact Mary Rose Muccie (maryrose.muccie@temple.edu) or Annie Johnson (annie.johnson@temple.edu).

Note: The image above, “Open Access Publishing Fund,” is a derivative of “Open Access at CC” by Amy Collier for Creative Commons, and is used under CC BY 4.0. “Open Access Publishing Fund” is licensed under CC BY 4.0 by Annie Johnson.

2018-2019 Recipients of the OA Publishing Fund

OA Publishing Fund, ,

picture of open arrow sign

“Open”by “Caveman Chuck” Coker is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0

We are pleased to announce the 2018-2019 recipients of the Open Access Publishing Fund. Congrats to all!

Jocelyn Behm, Brianna DiMarco, Christian Irian, Kelley Langhans, Kathleen McGrath, Tyler J. Tran and Matthew Helmus (College of Science and Technology, Biology). “First records of the mourning gecko (Lepidodactylus lugubris Duméril and Bibron, 1836), common house gecko (Hemidactylus frenatus in Duméril, 1836), and Tokay gecko (Gekko gecko Linnaeus, 1758) on Curaçao, Dutch Antilles, and remarks on their Caribbean distributions.”

Megan Heere, Beth Moughan, Stephen Aronoff, Joseph Alfonsi, and Jennifer Rodriguez (Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Clinical Pediatrics). “Effect of Education and Cardboard Bassinet Distribution on Newborn Bed-Sharing.”

Albert Kim (College of Engineering, Electrical and Computer Engineering). “An Implantable Ultrasonically-Powered Micro-Light-Source (µLight) for Photodynamic Therapy.”

Ravi Kudesia (Fox School of Business, Human Resource Management). “Does interacting with trustworthy people enhance mindfulness? An experience sampling study of mindfulness in everyday situations.”

Peter Marshall and Ashley R. Drew (College of Liberal Arts, Psychology). “Interpersonal Influences on Body Representations in the Infant Brain.”

Peter Marshall, Nathan J. Smyk, and Staci Meredith Weiss (College of Liberal Arts, Psychology). “Sensorimotor Oscillations during a Reciprocal Touch Paradigm with a Human or Robot Partner.”

Peter Marshall and Staci Meredith Weiss (College of Liberal Arts, Psychology). “Neural Measures of Anticipatory Bodily Attention in Children: Relations with Executive Function.”

Charles Munyon (Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Neurosurgery). “Neuroethics of Non-primary Brain Computer Interface: Focus on Potential Military Applications.”

Heather Murphy and Shannon McGinnis (College of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics). “Bacterial Contamination on Latrine Surfaces in Community and Household Latrines in Kathmandu, Nepal.”

Gillian Queisser (College of Science and Technology, Mathematics). “Spine-to-Dendrite Calcium Modeling Discloses Relevance for Precise Positioning of Ryanodine-Receptor-Containing Spine Endoplasmic Reticulum.”

Saqib Rehman, Katharine D. Harper, Courtney Quinn, Joshua Eccles, and Frederick Ramsey (Lewis Katz School of Medicine, Orthopaedic Surgery and Sports Medicine). “Administration of Intravenous Antibiotics in Patients with Open Fractures is Dependent on Emergency Room Triaging.”

Soomin Seo (Klein College of Media and Communication, Journalism, Media, & Communication). Special Issue: Talking With the ‘Hermit Regime’: North Korea, Media, and Communication, International Journal of Communication. Not yet published.

Sylvia Twersky (College of Public Health, Health Services Administration and Policy). “Restrictive State Laws Aimed at Immigrants: Effects on Enrollment in Food Stamp Program by U.S. Citizen Children in Immigrant Families.” 

Geoffrey Wright (College of Public Health, Physical Therapy). “Tonic neuromuscular processing affects postural adaptation differently in aging and Parkinson’s Disease.” 

Xiaoxing Xi, L. Kasaei, T. Melbourne, Ke Chen, and B.A. Davidson (College of Science and Technology, Physics). “MgB2 Josephson junctions produced by focused helium ion beam irradiation.”

Using Manifold for Publishing Digital Scholarly Books

Publishing, Temple University Press, ,

Almost three years ago, we wrote about some of the new digital publishing platforms that scholars should know about. Today we’re going to take a closer look at one of them: Manifold. Manifold is an open source platform for publishing books online that was developed by the University of Minnesota Press, GC Digital Scholarship Lab at the City University of New York, and Cast Iron Coding, thanks to support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Manifold makes it easy for publishers to create beautiful, responsive, multimedia-rich online publications using existing files. Manifold ingests texts from EPUB, HTML, Markdown, and Google Docs (unlike, say, Scalar, Manifold itself is not an authoring platform). In addition to the University of Minnesota, a number of other university presses have started to use or experiment with Manifold, including the University of Arizona Press, the University of Washington Press, and Temple University Press.

So, why might a scholar choose Manifold for their next book? Here are our top 5 reasons:

  1. Your research includes lots of images, videos, or audio that won’t work in a print book. Manifold makes it easy to to add supplementary resources to a project. Resources can either be uploaded directly to Manifold or you can link out to other webpages. For one example of how this can work, check out Metagaming by Stephanie Boluk and Patrick LeMieux.
  2. You’re interested in getting feedback from colleagues. Manifold allows readers to highlight and annotate the text and share those annotations with others. As the author, you could even post an early draft of your work on Manifold and have people comment on it as a form of open peer review.
  3. You’re active on social media and want to know how readers are engaging with your book. Each Manifold project gets a hashtag for use on various social media platforms. Manifold integrates with Twitter, and mentions of the book can be curated and displayed on the book’s main page. For one example of how this can work, check out Internet Daemons by Fenwick McKelvey.
  4. You want to experiment with the process of writing a book. Manifold can be used in different ways. In addition to displaying the final book file, authors can post pieces of their project as they research and write it. Authors can share drafts, commentaries, talks, and other writings with readers in order to get feedback and ultimately make their work better. Readers can “follow” a book project as it develops and be alerted when new content is posted. For one example of how this can work, check out Social Theory for Nonhumans by John Hartigan.
  5. You care about making your research available beyond the academy. All Manifold projects published by the University of Minnesota Press are open access, meaning that anyone around the world can read them for free.

Are you considering using Manifold or another digital publishing platform for your next book project? Have questions about Manifold that we haven’t answered here? Let us know in the comments.

Call for Proposals: Temple Faculty-Authored Open Textbooks

Temple University Press, , , ,

North Broad Press is excited to launch our spring 2019 call for open textbook proposals. We’re looking for faculty members to author or edit open textbooks in their fields of study. All Temple University faculty are eligible to apply. Faculty whose proposals are selected will receive a stipend of $5,000.

The application is available here. The deadline for proposals is March 29, 2019. All applicants will be notified by April 15, 2019.

About us
North Broad Press is a joint publishing project between Temple University Press and Temple University Libraries. We publish works of scholarship, both new and reissued, from the Temple University community. Examples include open textbooks written, edited, or compiled by Temple faculty; previously out-of-print books written by Temple faculty or published by the Press; and born digital projects produced by Temple faculty or staff.

What is an open textbook?
An open textbook is a textbook licensed under a Creative Commons license and made available online to be freely used by students, teachers, and members of the public. Print-on-demand copies are also made available at cost. Open textbooks save students money and improve learning outcomes by ensuring that all students have access to their textbook on the first day of class.

What does the work involve?
As author, the faculty member is responsible for writing the text, finding and/or creating suitable images and figures, and clearing any necessary permissions. As editor, the faculty member is responsible for finding contributors, ensuring content requirements and deadlines are met, communicating feedback, and writing an introduction for the volume. Faculty members will keep the copyright to their book and will be able to choose the Creative Commons license that best suits the project.

Will this be peer reviewed?
Yes! All North Broad Press projects go through the peer review process to ensure the accuracy, effectiveness, and appropriateness of the text.

Have questions about your proposal or would like to discuss it before submitting? Please contact Annie Johnson and Mary Rose Muccie.

“We Are the People We Are Waiting For”: Reflections on OpenCon 2018

Uncategorized, , , ,

Jacqueline Phillips and other attendees at OpenCon. Photograph courtesy of Erin McKiernan.

OpenCon is a unique conference that brings together leading early career academic professionals and students from across the world to catalyze action toward a more open system of research and education. This year, Temple University Libraries was proud to sponsor Assistant Professor of Instruction in the Department of Kinesiology (College of Public Health) Jacqueline Phillips to attend OpenCon. The following is a guest post from Dr. Phillips about her experience.

This past weekend I participated in the 2018 OpenCon conference. Since this was my first OpenCon conference I wasn’t very sure of what to expect, but knew it was a gathering of early career professionals with a passion for open access (OA), so I was eager to take part. As a newcomer to the OA world this was my first exposure to an open community beyond my university. Overall, I was completely blown away by the programming and the passion of everyone there to collaborate and better their communities.

Open scholarly work was a new topic I was introduced to at this conference. Although I’ve known about open access journals and the concept of open data, I learned about other ways to make your work open such as posting preprints. Preprints are drafts of manuscripts that are posted online prior to being peer reviewed and formally published. Since a paper can sit in a purgatory-like state for a lengthy amount of time during the standard journal submission process, “pre-printing” enables the author(s) to share their work right away with those in their field. Readers can leave comments or questions, and the paper can be updated with revisions or with a final manuscript after it’s been published. By getting a DOI for a preprint, someone’s work is protected, and others are able to cite the paper. This format enables an early conversation to occur while also helping to connect individuals and advance their work.

As an instructor, my ears always perked up when the topic of open education resources (OER) arose. Strategies on finding already made resources were discussed along with troubleshooting areas of creating resources, like finding or making images (an issue commonly faced in the sciences). Some of the most useful bits of information that I’ll be taking home in this area came through networking and talking to others who have been through this process and were able to provide me with practical tips and wonderful sources. Beyond the making of or incorporation of OER, the discussion that most resonated with me in this area was the importance of student advocacy on campus for OER. A few students were in attendance at OpenCon who spoke about the clubs they were a part of whose mission it is to educate other students about what OER are and how they are impactful. Beyond educating their fellow peers on the subject, they also push for their administration to recognize the importance of the incorporation of OER on campus. This is the type of movement that can help to incentivize faculty to incorporate open materials into their classes, and encourage administration to change the metrics of success that faculty are graded upon for merit or promotion. Student advocacy was a different approach to fostering a cultural change on a campus that seemed to be very successful within these communities.

One particular aspect of the conference I was impressed by was the diversity. Not only the diversity of the attendees, but also presenters and organizers. By having people of different backgrounds and perspectives from around the world involved with all aspects of this event, it contributed to the depth and range of discussions that were held. A topic was presented about how sometimes our mainstream movement to advance OA can inadvertently perpetuate the marginalization of communities this movement aims to help. A lack of diversity at events such as this would only reinforce this oppression; however, I feel the organizers were sensitive to this concept and handled the conference in a way that will help to break down some of these barriers. There was even transparency about the demographics of the conference. The organizers informed us all about the numbers and breakdown of gender, ethnicity, profession etc. of everyone at and involved with the conference. This holds the conference to a higher standard and only helps to make the event even more productive. I hope that we’ll see other conferences begin to incorporate this presentation of the statistics into their events to show commitment to diversity and equity.

The last day of the conference featured a do-a-thon (similar to the concept of a hackathon) where attendees worked in groups to create solutions to particular issues that were brought to the table. All of our work and action plans are available online to the public so that anyone can help and contribute. Overall, I felt very productive at OpenCon. I learned how to use design thinking to solve issues, walked away with actionable items to promote the incorporation of OER, and most importantly, I made connections and became a member of a community that is inspired to collaborate to progress this movement. The conference was closed by Nicole Allen, from SPARC, who left us with the quote: “We are the people we are waiting for.” This perfectly sums of the message I hope to spread to others. We have the ability to break down barriers in education, and now after having attended OpenCon I feel I have more tools to help not only myself, but others accomplish this.

A Brief Introduction to Open Access Journal Publishers

Publishing, , ,

“Types of OA Publishers” by Annie Johnson is licensed under CC BY 4.0.

This week is Open Access Week, a yearly international celebration that aims to increase awareness about open access (scholarship that is free to read and reuse). Most academic work is locked up behind a paywall, available only to those who are affiliated with a college or university. One way researchers can make their work more widely available to readers is by publishing in an open access journal.

Some of the largest publishers of open access journals are actually commercial publishers you’ve probably heard of, like Elsevier and Springer Nature. SAGE, De Gruyter, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley also publish open access journals.

Nonetheless, there are a growing number of exclusively open access journal publishers whose names may be less familiar to researchers. Here’s a brief run down of some of the major open access publishers you might encounter:

Exclusively Open Access Non-Profit Publishers

eLife
eLife is a non-profit OA publisher/journal that was founded by Howard Hughes Medical Institute, the Max Planck Society and the Wellcome Trust is 2011. They publish scholarship in the life and biomedical sciences. Some articles published in eLife include ancillary materials, such as the decision letter from the editorial team with suggestions for improvement, as well as the authors’ response to that letter. Peer reviewers may also choose to reveal their identities to authors. In addition to traditional journal content eLife runs a magazine which includes editorials, interviews, and podcasts. eLife is one of the most prominent publishers to criticize the journal impact factor. As a result, they do not report on or promote this metric.

PLOS
Founded in 2001, PLOS (Public Library of Science) is a non-profit publisher that publishes seven journals. Its flagship journal, PLOS ONE is known as a “mega journal” because of the large number of articles it publishes (22,054 papers in 2016 alone). In 2014 PLOS implemented a new data policy, in which they require that all researchers make the data underlying their work fully available.

Exclusively Open Access Commercial Publishers

BioMed Central
Based in the United Kingdom, BioMed Central (BMC) was founded in 1999 and publishes over 300 journals. It is now owned by Springer Nature. Temple University Libraries is an institutional member of BMC, and automatically covers 50% of the total APC for all Temple researchers who submit.

F1000 Research
F1000 Research is a scholarly publication platform that was founded in 2000. It is known for its use of open peer review. F1000 Research publishes posters and slides in addition to scholarly articles.

Frontiers
Frontiers Media was founded in 2007 and is based in Switzerland. It currently publishes sixty-three open access journals in a range of disciplines.

Hindawi
Hindawi is an open access publisher based in London. It was founded in 1997, although it did not become an exclusive open access publisher until the 2000s. Hindawi currently publishes over 400 journals.

MDPI
Founded in 1996, the publisher MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) is based in Switzerland and publishes 203 open access journals, mostly in the sciences.

PeerJ
Launched in 2013, PeerJ is a publisher of two journals: PeerJ (which focuses on the biological, medical and environmental sciences) and PeerJ Computer Science. They also have a repository for preprints, called PeerJ Preprints. In the beginning, PeerJ relied on a membership model to make money, in which authors would pay one fee and they could publish for free in PeerJ for the rest of their careers. They have recently changed their model so that authors can pay an article processing charge (APC) instead of purchasing a lifetime membership.

One last note: all the publishers profiled here are members of the Committee on Publication Ethics, and their journals can be found in the Directory of Open Access Journals.