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The following article provides an overview of Open Access Publishing in Austria in 2010. First of all, the participation of Austrian institutions in signing Open Access declarations and Open Access events in Austria are presented. Secondly, the article shows the development of both the Green Road to Open Access (repositories) as well as the Golden Road (Open Access Journals) in Austria. The article also describes the Open Access policies of the most important funding agency in Austria, the biggest university of the country as well as Universities Austria, the association of the 21 public universities in Austria. Finally, the paper raises the question of how Open Access is to be financed and explains the legal framework conditions for Open Access in Austria.

The present survey evaluates the attitude, towards Open Access, of the teaching staff of the Faculty of Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Geneva (Switzerland). It contributes to the reflection currently in progress at the BSES, the Faculty's Library – and beyond, at the University of Geneva – about the place which this new type of scientific publishing should be granted in the future. As a conclusion this study suggests various actions which might be taken, so that Open Access can find its proper place within the institution. In addition, one interrogation underlying this study deals with the differences which may exist between scientific disciplines – such as the ones, often referred to, between STM (Sciences, Technique and Medicine) and SHS (Social and Human Sciences) – concerning on the one hand current communication practices among scientists and, on the other, their attitude towards Open Access.

A review of recent developments in remote document supply and related matters in the UK. Remote document supply is in decline and this trend is likely to continue. Advances in technology open the way for unmediated requesting and supply. Collaborative off-site stores are emerging as the solution to library space problems while preserving access to collections.

This work focuses on the issue of 'Open Access' and, specifically, on the growing Open Access Italian Movement. Recent months have witnessed a remarkable spread of information amongst a not-only-experts-public on this issue. Yet, information hasn't always been correct and coherent with the movement's philosophy, fostering ambiguity and bias. The present article intends to clarify some of the key concepts in this domain, by providing a clear definition of the Open Access Movement, and of its aims and objectives. 'Open Access' means making the intellectual works produced by researchers and scholars all over the world accessible to the public. The Open Access Movement encourages scientists, researchers and scholars to disseminate their works as widely as possible, making them freely accessible to other research communities. The Open Access Movement therefore aims at removing any financial, legal or technical barrier which may hinder access to scientific information, and ensuring that society as a whole may benefit from scientific and technological progress. In our country - as in other countries where Open Access already is a reality - academic and research institutions have recently started to develop open archives. Finally, the article advances useful suggestions on how to make the Open Access Movement stronger within Italian universities.

The Open Access Initiative (OAI) relates to documents published electronically, and allows free and unrestricted access to the full text of scientific and research literature via the Internet. This assumes the free use of scientific information, as long as its authorship is recognized. The three main statements about the OAI are contained in the declarations of Budapest (2002), Bethesda (2003) and Berlin (2003). Open access is compatible with copyright, copyleft, peer review, printing, preservation and other characteristics associated with conventional academic literature. The most relevant difference consists in the fact that readers are not charged for access to the information, and therefore there are no barriers to research. Even so, the success of the OAI does not depend only on the availability of documents, but also on the support of the scientific community.

The paper focusses on the sociological implications of these arguments by tackling their inherent sociological terminology and social values. Pierre Bourdieu's theory of the scientific field and the circulation of capital allows for the well-grounded estimation of the effectiveness of OA for scientific communication and the impact of its proposed openness. Discourse analysis based on Foucault, on the other hand, illuminates the dogmata and ideology of arguments about the leveling of the Digital Divide by redrawing the connection between scientific communication and the theory of science. Last, the sociological approach to the term “information society“ shows the relationship between accessibility of information and the emergence of democracy.

The emergence in the scientific community of an initiative known as data sharing, consisting of sharing research data among researchers and aiming to maximize efforts and resources, is analysed. First, the concept of research data and the related technical difficulties depending on the discipline are reviewed. We also examine the motivations, origins and growth of this movement, which has had an important impact on the scientific community’s behaviour through the creation of reposi- tories and data banks, raising both technical and social challenges. Then we discuss leading funding agencies’ initiatives and scientific journals’ editorial policies promoting these practices. Finally, we examine the impact these major changes in researchers’ habits have for librarians, including the emergence of new professional profiles.

The aim of open access publishing is free access to scholarly journals via internet. Reduction of costs is highlighted as an important reason for libraries to head for a paradigm shift from the subscription based and licence based journal model to open access. The paper discusses economical aspects of two possibilities of open access. In the "golden road" variant the author pays and publishes his original research paper in an open access journal, whereas in the "green road" model the author archives a copy of his previously published paper in an institutional or subject repository. Both possibilities carry potential risks particularly for institutions with a strong focus on research or with a high output on scholarly papers. The implementation of the paradigm shift will rise costs compared to the traditional publication model.

Electronic publishing implies a change in the traditional publishing chain, for such concepts as storage and distribution of the scholarly article, going as it does from the physical to the digital archive, and affecting all processes in between. We will deal with the new trends in electronic publishing of scholarly journals, from the many and varied projects and initiatives of Open Access and Free Access. Regarding the letter, we shall speak about Open Access directories and repositories ( Open Archive Initiative) available on the Internet. When we speak of electronic publishing of scholarly journals, same points need to be clarified: 1) journals born under the Open Access model, 2) journals that combine commercial distribution with a temporary embargo period before their free distribution over the Internet. We shall see that the advantages outnumber the drawbacks with this new publishing policy and it will be the researchers themselves who must adapt to the cultural changes involved in this new form of publishing their works. The articles concludes with an analysis of how publishers, information distributors and libraries have been obliged to modify their systems of publishing, distribution and management of information.

This contribution describes and analyses the European Commission's recent open access initiatives by relating them to official documents by the Commission, studies commissioned by it, public consultations, and similar initiatives and statements by European organisations. Informed by an open access-friendly point of view, the author concludes by specifying weaknesses of the European Commission's initiatives: the inadequate consideration of interdisciplinarity and the strong orientation towards natural sciences and medical research.