Based at the Max Planck Digital Library ( MPDL ) in Germany, ESAC focuses on open access author and library workflows, data gathering and analytics, agreement terms, and stakeholder engagement.

Of special interest for many authors are the graphs showing the average article processing charges (APCs) of different academic publishers globally.

By looking at this, we can more easily judge whether the APC at a specific journal of interest is reasonable, or not.

See: https://esac-initiative.org/market-watch/

Journals and magazines that cover "science communication" in all its diversity may be of interest to many members of our network. When I come across such publications, I would like to list them here.

Journal of Science Communication (JComm) (Sissa Medialab)

Science Communication: Linking Theory and Practice (Sage Publishing)

SWIPE SciComm (Animate Your Science)

This week I have been in Bangladesh for work related to my own research subject. I am collaborating with a counterpart at one of the universities here. He gave me days of his time, so I was very happy to help edit thesis abstracts for two of his MSc students.

The abstracts were first sent to me by email, as digital documents, but I insisted on working with the texts printed on paper, and with the students in person.

One student was sick, so eventually I had a good 30 minutes one-to-one with the other student, working through the abstract and improving the expression.

The basic content and structure was mostly good. By working through the text together, the student could observe the editing process, not just receive a final result. I hope it was helpful. For me as an editor, the work was much easier because I could ask the author for immediate feedback on my suggestions, and for clarification of meaning when needed.

Photo: Almost a red London bus in Dhaka?!

I am sure the similarity is intentional, since so many people from Bangladesh are living in the UK, or have been there for work or study.

Many staff at the university I am working with have obtained a PhD in the UK.

The title here is an expansion of the catch phrase of a Stanford University team that developed a system (program) for long-term preservation of digital content: LOCKSS (Lots of Copies Keep Stuff Safe) .

The program description begins:

'The LOCKSS Program is an open-source, library-led digital preservation system built on the principle that “lots of copies keep stuff safe.” The LOCKSS system is the first and only mechanism to apply the traditional purchase-and-own library model to electronic materials. The LOCKSS system allows librarians at each institution to take custody of and preserve access to the e-content to which they subscribe, restoring the print purchase model with which librarians are familiar. ...' (Internet 10th June 2017, lockss.org/about/what-is-lockss/)

This program has supported a range of public and private archiving efforts, with a particular emphasis on helping libraries maintain access to digital content that they have purchased. What happens when an online journal dies and the website disappears? If libraries can keep copies of the digital content they actually already paid for, then the journal's published information will remain accessible.

There is a wealth of useful information and discussion in the LOCKSS website itself, and especially in Dr. David S. H. Rosenthal's Blog , maintained by one of the founders of LOCKSS.

One of the many important efforts being made using LOCKSS is called CLOCKKS :

' Controlled  LOCKSS is a not-for-profit joint venture between the world’s leading academic publishers and research libraries whose mission is to build a sustainable, geographically distributed dark archive with which to ensure the long-term survival of Web-based scholarly publications for the benefit of the greater global research community.

CLOCKSS is for the entire world's benefit. Content no longer available from any publisher ("triggered content") is available for free. CLOCKSS uniquely assigns this abandoned and orphaned content a Creative Commons license to ensure it remains available forever.' ( Internet 10th June 2017 ,   https://clockss.org/clockss/Home)