========== Other News ========== Here are a few articles and news items dealing with open-source software and curricular materials in academics. September 2012 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Finnish teachers create open-source mathematics textbook in 3 days 29 September 2012---A group of Finnish teachers created an open-source mathematics textbook for secondary school in a 3-day sprint. While the book is in Finnish, it is a very interesting experiment in creating textbooks. See the `blog post `__ for more. California will create 50 free digital textbooks 27 September 2012---California has passed a law to create 50 free digital textbooks targeting lower-division college courses. California also passed a law to create the California Digital Open Source Library. See the `Los Angeles Times article `__ for more details. Particle Physics taking all journals to open-access 24 September 2012---"After six years of negotiation, the Sponsoring Consortium for Open Access Publishing in Particle Physics is now close to ensuring that nearly all particle-physics articles — about 7,000 publications last year — are made immediately free on journal websites. Upfront payments from libraries will fund the access." See the `Nature article `__ for more. June 2012 ^^^^^^^^^ PeerJ Journal adopts "flat fee, all you can publish" model 12 June 2012---The `PeerJ `__ journal explores a model where authors pay a one-time fee to publish all the scientific papers they want. A `Nature article `__ talks about this and other models to reduce cost to access publications. MLA Journals switch to "author retains copyright" 05 June 2012---The journals of the Modern Language Association have adopted a policy that authors will retain copyright to their articles. This means that authors will have no trouble posting their articles to open-access websites. See more at the `MLA Press Release `__. May 2012 ^^^^^^^^ UCSF Mandates Open Access 23 May 2012---University of California, San Francisco faculty senate voted unanimously for a policy requiring UCSF faculty to make each of their articles freely available immediately through an open-access repository. See more at the `UCSF news article `__. Fair use and e-reserves 12 May 2012---A judge just ruled on a case between publishers and Georgia State regarding fair use of materials in an e-reserve system. Most of the judgements came in favor of the university. Read more at `Inside Higher Ed `__ and `Kevin Smith's blog `__. Having open-source curricular material makes these sorts of complications moot, since copying and distribution of material is encouraged.