Sunday, July 11, 2004

A Model for Sustainable Student Retention: A Holistic Perspective on the Student Dropout Problem - Zane L. Berge, DEOS. This article introduces a comprehensive model to assist institutions in planning for interventions to address student dropout and to increase student retention. The model is the result of an extensive review, analysis, and synthesis of research and the [Online Learning Update] 9:00:34 AM      Google It!.

Another contribution to the Nature OA debate. Bettie Sue Masters and Judith S. Bond, A professional society's take on access to the scientific literature, Nature, July 8, 2004. Excerpt: "The Journal of Biological Chemistry (JBC), the flagship journal of the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (ASBMB), will celebrate its centennial in 2005....More recently, JBC has provided free, on-line, full text searchable access to every published article since its inception in 1905. The [ASBMB Journal of Lipid Research (JLR)] now also provides free, on-line access to every published article since its founding in 1959. Many other journals are now following suit but only a few have succeeded in achieving the goal of making their entire contents available in such a form. This activity was undertaken with the view of providing a vital service to the biological sciences community but it was not done without considerable thought and concern about its financial implications. The cost of this process was in excess of $700,000. The financial stability of the ASBMB and our business model for publishing has allowed our non-profit organization to take on such expenses, to serve our readers, authors and science. Our expenses are paid by a combination of sources, primarily by page charges to authors and subscriptions to individuals and libraries. In a recent survey of over a 1,000 JBC authors, over 80% preferred this mode of covering expenses to other models, such as authors or institutions paying all the costs." [Open Access News] 8:50:19 AM      Google It!.