CSSP, JNU is now one of the signatories to "The Lyon Declaration: On Access to Information and Development"

The Lyon Declaration on Access to Information and Development

The Lyon Declaration of August 2014 was written in English. The wording of the English version shall prevail.
The United Nations is negotiating a new development agenda to succeed the Millennium Development Goals. The agenda will guide all countries on approaches to improving people's lives, and outline a new set of goals to be reached during the period 2016-2030.
We, the undersigned, believe that increasing access to information and knowledge across society, assisted by the availability of information and communications technologies (ICTs), supports sustainable development and improves people's lives.
We therefore call upon the Member States of the United Nations to make an international commitment to use the post-2015 development agenda to ensure that everyone has access to, and is able to understand, use and share the information that is necessary to promote sustainable development and democratic societies.

Principles

Sustainable development seeks to ensure the long-term socio-economic prosperity and well-being of people everywhere. The ability of governments, parliamentarians, local authorities, local communities, civil society, the private sector and individuals to make informed decisions is essential to achieving it.
In this context, a right to information would be transformational. Access to information supports development by empowering people, especially marginalised people and those living in poverty, to:

• Exercise their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights.
• Be economically active, productive and innovative.
• Learn and apply new skills.
• Enrich cultural identity and expression.
• Take part in decision-making and participate in an active and engaged civil society.
• Create community-based solutions to development challenges.
• Ensure accountability, transparency, good governance, participation and empowerment.
• Measure progress on public and private commitments on sustainable development.

Declaration

In accordance with the findings of the High Level Panel on the Post–2015 Development Agenda, the post-2015 consultations of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Open Working Group Focus Area Report, all of which identified the crucial role of access to information in supporting development, we, the undersigned, recognise that:

1. Poverty is multidimensional, and progress in eradicating poverty is linked to sustainable development across a variety of areas.
2. Sustainable development must take place in a human-rights based framework, where:
1. Inequality is reduced by the empowerment, education and inclusion of marginalized groups, including women, indigenous peoples, minorities, migrants, refugees, persons with disabilities, older persons, children and youth.
2. Gender equality, along with full social, economic and political engagement, can be significantly enhanced by empowering women and girls through equitable access to education.
3. Dignity and autonomy can be strengthened by ensuring access to employment and decent jobs for all.
4. Equitable access to information, freedom of expression, freedom of association and assembly, and privacy are promoted, protected and respected as being central to an individual's independence.
5. Public participation of all is ensured to allow them to take ownership of change needed to improve their lives.

3. Increased access to information and knowledge, underpinned by universal literacy, is an essential pillar of sustainable development. Greater availability of quality information and data and the involvement of communities in its creation will provide a fuller, more transparent allocation of resources.
4. Information intermediaries such as libraries, archives, civil society organisations (CSOs), community leaders and the media have the skills and resources to help governments, institutions and individuals communicate, organize, structure and understand data that is critical to development. They can do this by:
1. Providing information on basic rights and entitlements, public services, environment, health, education, work opportunities, and public expenditure that supports local communities and people to guide their own development.
2. Identifying and focusing attention on relevant and pressing needs and problems within a population.
3. Connecting stakeholders across regional, cultural and other barriers to facilitate communication and the exchange of development solutions that could be scaled for greater impact.
4. Preserving and ensuring ongoing access to cultural heritage, government records and information by the public, through the stewardship of national libraries and archives and other public heritage institutions.
5. Providing public forums and space for wider civil society participation and engagement in decision-making.
6. Offering training and skills to help people access and understand the information and services most helpful to them.

5. Improved ICT infrastructure can be used to expand communications, speed up the delivery of services and provide access to crucial information particularly in remote communities. Libraries and other information intermediaries can use ICTs to bridge the gap between national policy and local implementation to ensure that the benefits of development reach all communities.
6. We, the undersigned, therefore call on Member States of the United Nations to acknowledge that access to information, and the skills to use it effectively, are required for sustainable development, and ensure that this is recognised in the post-2015 development agenda by:
1. Acknowledging the public's right to access information and data, while respecting the right to individual privacy.
2. Recognising the important role of local authorities, information intermediaries and infrastructure such as ICTs and an open Internet as a means of implementation.
3. Adopting policy, standards and legislation to ensure the continued funding, integrity, preservation and provision of information by governments, and access by people.
4. Developing targets and indicators that enable measurement of the impact of access to information and data and reporting on progress during each year of the goals in a Development and Access to Information (DA2I) report.

Find Out Signatories from India and BRICS Countries: http://www.lyondeclaration.org

INSA Public Lecture "Chance and Necessity: Nurturing the Young Talents" on 2nd February

Public Lecture in INSA

Chance and Necessity : Nurturing the Young Talents by Professor Dipankar Chatterji, Date: 2nd February, 2015 Venue: INSA, ITO, New Delhi Time: 3:30pm RSVP scipol2012@gmail.com

CSLG Lecture "Dance like a book: Copyright and the Conundrums of Culture" by Lawrence Liang, on 27 Jan

CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF LAW AND GOVERNANCE
Jawaharlal Nehru University

SEMINAR SERIES

Lawrence Liang
Alternative Law Forum, Bangalore

on

Dance like a book: Copyright and the Conundrums of Culture

Abstract: Copyright is not merely a theory of intangible property it is also a theory of culture and creativity. There is however an ontological puzzle underlying copyright's claims to culture. Copyright emerged within the history of a specific technology, paper and its ideas of originality, authorship and expression are rooted within a literary tradition, so what happens when copyright encounters art, music, cinema and dance? These cultural forms constitute the Bermuda triangle of copyright law where many of its foundational principles (originality, fixation, idea-expression divide) are either simply absent or inapplicable. If copyright is not particularly suited to address diverse cultural forms, then how may we imagine a legal system for the ownership and /or sharing of knowledge which emerges not from copyright but from the immanent logic of cultural forms?

Tuesday, 27 January 2015
3.00 PM
Conference Room, CSLG, JNU

About the speaker: Lawrence Liang is a researcher and writer at the Alternative Law Forum. One of the co-founders of ALF, Liang's areas of interests have been in law and culture, politics of copyright and law and literature. His doctoral research at the School of Arts and Aesthetics (JNU) on the cinematic courts of justice addresses law, philosophy and justice in Hindi cinema. He graduated from the National Law School, Bangalore and did his Masters at the University of Warwick. A keen follower of the open source movement in software, Liang has been working on ways of translating the open source ideas into the cultural domain.

PLEASE JOIN US FOR TEA AFTER THE SEMINAR

ALL ARE WELCOME

NMML Invites You to Public Lectures Series "Science, Society and Nature" 2015

Nehru Memorial Museum and Library

Public Lecture Series

Science, Society and Nature

Venue: Seminar Room, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi

Time: 3.00 pm

Dr. Kiran Asher,

Centre for International Forestry Research, Bogor, Indonesia.

'The Romance of Resistance and the Politics of Rescue in Post-Development Alternatives'

Friday, 6^th February, 2015

Dr. Nayanika Mathur,

Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK.

'Enter 'Climate Change':  Of beastly encounters, cervine disappearances,  and state categorisation in the Uttarakhand Himalaya'

Thursday, 4th March, 2015

Dr. T.R. Shankar Raman,

Natural Conservation Foundation, Mysore.

'Recasting the Nature Conservation Landscape: A Field Perspective from India's Tropical Rainforests'

Friday,20^th March, 2015

Prof. Brij Gopal

Centre for Inland Waters in in South Asia, Jaipur.

'Turn the Rivers Dry to Make Deserts Bloom: Rapidly changing society-nature relationships'

Friday,27^th March, 2015

Prof. C.N.R. Rao,

Jawaharlal Nehru Centre for Advanced Scientific Research, Bengaluru.

'Doing Science in India'

Friday, 3rd July, 2015

Mr. A.V. Balasubramanian,

Centre for Indian Knowledge Systems, Chennai.

'Conservation and Utilisation of Agrobiodiversity and Millets: The missing links in our quest for food and nutritional security'.

Friday, 17th July, 2015

Prof. Raghavendra Gadagkar,

Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru.

'War and Peace:  Conflict and cooperation in an insect society'

Friday, 31st July, 2015

Dr. Jayashree Ratnam,

National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.

'Towards a Functional Understanding of the Savanna Ecosystems of Asia'

Friday, 7th August, 2015

Dr. Robin Vijayan,

National Centre for Biological Sciences, Bengaluru.

'Sky Islands of Western Ghats:  Response of montane birds to multiple scales of patchiness'

Friday, 21st August, 2015

Prof. Purnendu S. Kavoori,

Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

'Is the Future 'Feudal'? Imagining the social structure of sustainability'

Friday, 4th September, 2015

Prof. Madhumati Dutta,

Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology, Shibpur.

'Consumer Behaviour  and Carbon Emissions:  Lessons in policy'

Friday, 6th November, 2015

All are welcome.

Schedule: NMML Public Lecture Series "Science, Society and Nature" 2015.

Those wishing to have their names added to the e-mail list may please e-mail us at: nmmldirector@gmail.com. Address: Nehru Memorial Museum & Library, Teen Murti House, New Delhi – 110011, India. Please note that the nearest Metro Stations are Race Course and Central Secretariat and the key DTC bus numbers 620, 604, 680 and 720. Autos are also easily available at these stations.   Note: There is an elevator for the First Floor for those who may need to use it. Further Details: NehruMemorial.Nic.In

New CSSP Electronic Working Paper "Globalization of Ayurvedic Medicines: An Analysis of Issues in Resource Management"

CSSPEWPS 5 :: Globalization of Ayurvedic Medicines: An Analysis of Issues in Resource Management
by N.B. Brindavanam (Dabur Research & Development Centre, U.P., India), January 2015.

Abstract
Ayurveda largely enumerated botanical entities as active pharmacological agents for preventive healthcare as well as for therapeutic purposes. In view of poly-pharmaceutical practices followed by the system, the number of usable medicinal plants is also significant. To available estimates, 960 species of medicinal plants are being used for manufacturing of these formulations. By and large, these plants are sourced from wild- more in particular from forest sources. On the other hand, there have been ambitious endeavor to globalize the Ayurvedic products and services. Such endeavor is reasonably assumed to pressurize the existing sources wild medicinal plants. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the impact of globalization on the biological diversity and thereby on our eco-systems as whole.
An attempt is made in this paper to analyze the issues associated with resource management for medicinal plants. Further, it attempts to outline a multi-dimensional intervention needed to capture the economic opportunities through globalization of Ayurveda.

Download Full-text PDF: http://www.jnu.ac.in/SSS/CSSP/CSSP-EWPS-5.pdf

CfP: OECD-CII-UNU-MERIT International Conference on Innovation for Inclusive Growth, 10-12 Feb, New Delhi

International Conference on Innovation for Inclusive Growth

Date: 10-12 February 2015

Venue: Taj Palace Hotel, New Delhi, India

How to participate | Agenda | Partner events | Background

 

The OECD, jointly with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), will host the Conference on Innovation for Inclusive Growth, which will gather over 200 international and Indian participants, including government representatives, private sector corporations, international organisations and high-level experts. It is designed as a forum fostering high-level discussion and policy exchange among the stakeholders concerned with the question of how innovation can best serve inclusive development. The conference is organised as part of a series of events to be organised on subsequent days by the World Bank and UNU-MERIT. The objective is to foster discussion and policy exchange among the variety of stakeholders drawn from a variety of developed, emerging and developing economies who are addressing the question of how innovation can best serve inclusive development. The conference will be structured aroundcentral policy questions regarding inclusive innovation; each will be discussed as part of a dedicated session by panels of high-level policy representatives. By bringing together leading experts including government representatives, private sector corporations, international organisations and high-level experts from advanced, emerging and developing economies, it aims to further multidimensional understanding of the issues at hand and provide basis for concrete action.

‌‌‌

Preliminary Agenda Download as PDF

Background

Innovation is a critical driver of growth and a motor for generating employment: this is a key lesson of the past decades. Despite the significant contributions of growth to the reduction of poverty during the past decades, high levels of inequalities persist or are even rising in some developed and emerging economies. As a consequence, achieving inclusive development is at the top of many governments' agendas. It is therefore crucial to examine the possible contributions of innovation to inclusive development.

 

Innovation can contribute to inclusiveness,  not only as a driver of income growth but also through innovations that are specifically aimed at lower-income and excluded groups ("inclusive innovations"), which can substantially improve their welfare. Inclusive innovations include innovative goods and services, often substitutes for missing public goods (e.g. health services or access to electricity). To respond to the specific needs of excluded groups and adapt to their requirements (including adaptation to deficient infrastructures), technical as well as business model innovations are needed. Inclusive innovations are often for-profit or at least cost-covering initiatives, and as such offer a more sustainable alternative to support development than those based on continual public or philanthropic funding. As a result, there is a growing interest in fostering the development of these initiatives through policy action, especially as a major challenge that inclusive innovations face is how to reach scale.

Innovation dynamics and innovation policies affect inclusiveness from different angles:First, innovation can increase inequalities in income and opportunities of different groups in society ("social inclusiveness"). Second, innovation dynamics have impacts on "industrial inclusiveness": Many economies have economic structures characterised by concentration of innovation activities where selected frontier innovators co-exist with a group of weak performers. Third, innovation and its policies also affect "territorial inclusiveness": the geographic dimensions of industrial and social inequalities.

The OECD "Innovation for Inclusive Growth" project analyses the impacts of innovation and related policies on inclusive growth. Addressing the needs of policymakers in both key non-member economies and OECD countries, the aims of the project are to:

• Provide evidence on the effects of innovation and related policies on inclusive growth focusing on industrial, social and territorial inequalities; and
   
• Develop concrete policy solutions to support countries in reconciling their innovation and inclusive development agendas, including options for scaling up inclusive innovations.

The project is undertaken under the auspices of the OECD Committee for Scientific and Technological Policy (CSTP). It mobilises OECD competences in innovation, education, and regional development and contributes to the OECD's Inclusive Growth Initiative. This transversal initiative aims to deliver a renewed strategic policy agenda by identifying how to define and measure the concept of inclusive growth and shedding light on the policy options and trade-offs to promote growth and inclusiveness. More information can be found here:

OECD Innovation for Inclusive Growth project: http://oe.cd/inclusive

OECD Inclusive Growth Initiative:http://www.oecd.org/inclusive-growth/.

www.oecd.org/sti/inno/innovation-for-inclusive-growth-conference.htm

Doctoral and PostDoc Scholarships Available in 2015-16

·         PhD Scholarship - Reconciling Biological and Social Indigeneity in the Genomic Era

Deakin University, Australia is seeking an outstanding scholar for a full-time PhD project and scholarship to support the ARC Discovery Project 'Reconciling Biological and Social Indigeneity in the Genomic Era', led by A/Prof Emma Kowal. The successful candidate will commence studies by April 2015 and will be based at the Melbourne Burwood Campus. Application Deadline: 27^th February 2015. 

Further details: http://www.deakin.edu.au/study-at-deakin/scholarships-and-awards/research-degree-scholarships/phd-scholarship-indigeneity

·         Postdoc for Cosmopolitanism in Science project

·         The University of King's College and Dalhousie University, Halifax, Canada announce a postdoctoral fellowship award in Science and Technology Studies (STS)/ History and Philosophy of Science, Technology and Medicine (HPSTM), associated with the SSHRC Partnership Development Grant, "Cosmopolitanism and the Local in Science and Nature: Creating an East/West Partnership," a partnership development between institutions in Canada, India and Southeast Asia aimed at establishing an East/West research network on "Cosmopolitanism" in science. The project closely examines the ideas, processes and negotiations that inform the development of science and scientific cultures within an increasingly globalized landscape. A detailed description of the project can be found at: http://www.CosmoLocal.org. Duration of fellowship is one year, with option to renew for second year pending budget and project restrictions and requirements. Application Deadline: 2^nd March 2015.

Further details: http://cosmolocal.org/2014/12/10/postdoc-for-cosmopolitanism-in-science/

 

·         Postdoc for Indexing the Human: From Classification to a Critical Politics of Transformation project

The Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Stellenbosch University, South Africa is delighted to announce the availability of a postdoctoral fellowship position to begin in February 2015 or shortly thereafter. The postdoctoral fellow will work closely with scholars in the Department to help coordinate the Mellon Foundation-funded programme Indexing the Human: From Classification to a Critical Politics of Transformation and to further a set of interrelated research projects closely related to the programme themes. Indexing the Human is a year-long programme of seminars, workshops and collaborative learning opportunities that brings together local, regional, and international scholars to provoke a re-thinking of the past and future of social anthropology and of the human sciences more broadly at Stellenbosch University and in the region. Application Deadline: 25^th January 2015.

Further details: http://indexingthehuman.org/events/postdoctoral-fellowship-call-for-applications/

·         Australia Government's Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships 2016

Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships are internationally competitive, merit-based scholarships provided by the Australian Government that support citizens of the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East, Europe and the Americas to undertake study, research and professional development programmes in Australia and for Australians to undertake these programmes overseas. The Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships build Australia's reputation for excellence in the provision of education, support the internationalisation of the Australian higher education and research sectors and offer high-achieving Australians opportunities to increase their knowledge and expertise in their field. Applications for the 2016 round are expected to open in April 2015. Applicants are encouraged to check the Endeavour Scholarships and Fellowships website closer to April 2015 for further information, applicant guidelines and eligibility criteria. Further details: http://internationaleducation.gov.au/Scholarships-and-Fellowships/Pages/default.aspx 

WIPO Online General Course on Intellectual Property (DL-101) [free-of-charge]

WIPO Online General Course on Intellectual Property (DL-101)

This course builds on the concepts presented in DL-001 - Intellectual Property Primer. It provides a more in-depth overview of the fundamentals of IP law, and is considered as indispensable to pursue more advanced courses of study on specific areas of IP law.

Course basics

• Duration - 55 hours over the course of six weeks
• Languages - English, Arabic, Chinese, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish
• Tuition - free-of-charge

Online Registration

• Create a WIPO account

Curriculum

The DL-101 course is comprised of the following modules and final exam:

• Module 1: Guide to Studying the Course
• Module 2: Introduction to IP
• Module 3: Copyright
• Module 4: Related Rights
• Module 5: Trademarks
• Module 6: Geographical Indications
• Module 7: Industrial Design
• Module 8: Patents
• Module 9: WIPO Treaties
• Module 10: Unfair Competition
• Module 11: Protection of New Varieties of Plants
• Module 12: IP and Development- The WIPO Development Agenda (New since 2011)
• Module 13: Summary and Discussion on Intellectual Property Rights
• Final Exam

Self-assessment tools are strategically placed throughout each module to assist participants with gauging their respective levels of knowledge and progress, as well as their ability to apply the concepts and facts presented within the course.

Academic support is provided throughout each module by experienced tutors who are expert practitioners in the field of IP.

Final Exam and Certificate

The final exam for this course is comprised of a series of multiple choice questions. A fixed amount of time is allocated for participants to complete and submit the exam on-line. Participants are contacted regarding modalities for accessing the final exam approximately one week prior to the deadline for completion of the DL-101 course.

Participants who pass the DL-101 final exam are awarded an electronic certificate of course completion.

Eligibility

This course is open to individuals who are/will be employed in the field of administration of intellectual property rights; those seeking general knowledge of IP; and those who generate various forms of IP and seek a deeper understanding of the effective management and protection of IPRs.

Further Details: http://www.wipo.int/academy/en/courses/distance_learning/dl101.html

CfA: STEPS Centre Summer School 2015 on pathways to sustainability

STEPS Centre Summer School 2015 on pathways to sustainability
University of Sussex, U.K.
11–22 May 2015

Just a couple of weeks left to apply for our 2015 Summer School (deadline 28 January) to be held from 11-22 May at the Institute of Development Studies in Brighton, UK.
Applications are invited from highly-motivated doctoral and postdoctoral researchers,working in fields around development studies, science and technology studies, innovation and policy studies, and across agricultural, health, water or energy issues.
The STEPS Centre Summer School on pathways to sustainability aims to bring together an exceptional group of people who are exploring and developing ideas on pathways to sustainability. Through a mix of lectures, walks, discussions and public events, participants will challenge the STEPS team and each other on questions of science, society and development.
The summer school has run since 2012 with the generous support of the ESRC, IDRC and UKIERI.
Download the 2015 Brochure: http://steps-centre.org/wp-content/uploads/Summer_school_year_2015.pdf
Further Details: http://steps-centre.org/about/steps-summer-school/

CfPs: 8th Doctoral Thesis Conference, at IBS Hyderabad, 23-24 April

8th Doctoral Thesis Conference
Organized by IBS Hyderabad in collaboration with Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research (IGIDR), Mumbai
Dates: 23-24 April 2015
Venue : IBS Hyderabad, Telangana, India

Call for Papers
About the Conference: IBS Hyderabad, a constituent of ICFAI Foundation for Higher Education, a deemed to be University, one among the top B-schools of India is organizing 8th Doctoral Thesis Conference (DTC) during 23-24, April 2015 at IBS Hyderabad. Since 2007 this conference series have attracted research scholars from reputed foreign and Indian universities. The 8th DTC aims to provide a platform to the research scholars to present and exchange comments and views on their doctoral research work and receive feedback from experienced researchers and professors.

Themes:
Finance and Accounting, Banking and Insurance, Marketing, General Management, Economics, Quantitative Methods, Human Resource, Information Technology, Operations, Social Work, Psychology, Business Strategy and Entrepreneurship Development etc.

Submission Procedure and Dates:
Interested research scholars are requested to submit their papers, not exceeding 5000 words, latest by 23rd March, 2015. The papers can be emailed to DTC@ibsindia.org Detailed guidelines for submission of papers are available on DTC website. Authors of the selected papers will be invited to present their papers in the conference.
Contact: Dr. Subhendu Dutta (+91-9642147425); Dr IRS Sarma (+91-9948098104)
Further details: http://www.ibshyderabad.org/8th-Doctoral-Thesis-Conference.pdf

Fwd: Call for Abstracts / STS Conference Graz 2015, "Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies"

REMINDER

 

CALL FOR ABSTRACTS

STS Conference Graz 2015, "Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies"

GRAZ, AUSTRIA, May 11-12, 2015

We invite interested researchers in the areas of science, technology and society studies and sustainability studies to give presentations. The conference provides a forum to discuss on a broad variety of topics in these fields – especially abstracts are encouraged which refer to aspects of the mentioned conference themes and sessions.

KEYNOTES

Daniel Barben, Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt|Vienna|Graz, Austria: title of keynote to be confirmed

Harald Rohracher, Linköping University, Sveden: "The household junction: households as friction zones in infrastructure transitions"

Els Rommes, Radboud University Nijmegen, The Netherlands: title of keynote to be confirmed

Simon le Roux, Aalto University School of Arts, Finland: "Social sustainability assessment tools in the early planning of refurbishment and infill development in Finland"

CONFERENCE THEMES AND SESSIONS

Bodies, Health and Technology

• SESSION 1: Intimate Technologies: Embodying Artefatcs, Remaking Bodies, Enacting Norms
• SESSION 2: mHealth and Surveillance: Caring for Data?
• SESSION 3: Emerging Configurations of Biomedical Technologies

Responsible Research and Innovation Studies

• SESSION 4: Responsible Research and Innovation
• SESSION 5: Beyond Bibliometrics: New Approach to Mapping Science and Technology
• SESSION 6: Science and Economy: Sociotechnical Networks and the Use of Knowledge
• SESSION 7: Does Quality Count? On the Role of Metrics in Academic Accountability Politics

Information and Communication Technologies and Society

• SESSION 8: Cloud Computing as Critical ICT Infrastructure
• SESSION 9: STS and 'New' Media
• SESSION 10: What is so Fascinating with Computer Science?

Social Change in Science and Technology

• SESSION 11: ICT Use, Energy Consumption and the Changing Practices
• SESSION 12: Intersectionality and Diversity Issues in Changing ICT Practices
• SESSION 13: Queer Feminist Science, Technology and Society studies
• SESSION 14: Music, Materiality and Subjectives

Transitions to Sustainability

• SESSION 15: Sustainability in Housing
• SESSION 16: Local Innovation Impulses and the Transformation of the Energy System
• SESSION 17: De-constructing the Smart City, Reassembling Urban Life
• SESSION 18: Visibility and Invisibility in Energy Transitions
• SESSION 19: STS – Design – Sustainability
• SESSION 20: From Vicious to Virtuous Production Chains: Transforming European SMEs Towards Circular Economic Business Models
• SESSION 21: Energy, Society and Culture – (Sustainable) Energy Transformations as Transformations of Social Order
• SESSION 22: Energy Transformations, Energy Epistemics, and Governance – the Role of the Social Sciences and Humanities

 

For more information on the call and the specific outlines of sessions please visit:

http://ifz.at/ias/IAS-STS/Upcoming-Activities/Call-for-Abstracts-STS-Conference-2015

 

Submissions should be sent to Michaela Jahrbacher (sts-conf-graz@aau.at) until January 22^th, 2015

as a *DOC/DOCX-file*.

 

Abstracts should include not more than 250 words, comprising detailed contact information, affiliation and specification of the conference theme and session you are referring to.

 

The STS Conference Graz 2015 is the joint annual conference of STS - the Institute of Science, Technology and Society Studies at Alpen-Adria-Universität Klagenfurt|Vienna|Graz, IFZ - the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture and IAS-STS - the Institute for Advanced Studies on Science, Technology and Society.

Kind regards
Michaela Jahrbacher

-----------------------------------------------------
Mag. Michaela Jahrbacher
Conference Organisation

Alpen-Adria-University Klagenfurt|Vienna|Graz
STS - Institute of Science, Technology and Society Studies
IFZ - Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture
Schloegelgasse 2, 8010 Graz, Austria
Phone: +43/316/813909-0; Fax: +43/316/813909-11
E-Mail: sts-conf-graz@aau.at
www.sts.aau.at

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Open Access Research Communicators

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Open Access Research Communicators

The emergence of Web 2.0 and simultaneously Library 2.0 platforms has helped the library and information professionals to outreach to new audiences beyond their physical boundaries. In a globalized knowledge society, information becomes very useful resource for socio-economic empowerment of marginalized communities, economic prosperity of common citizens, and knowledge enrichment of liberated minds. Scholarly information becomes both developmental and functional for researchers working towards advancement of knowledge. We must recognize a relay of information flow and information ecology while pursuing scholarly research. Published scholarly literatures we consult that help us in creation of new knowledge. Similarly, our published scholarly works should be outreached to future researchers for regeneration of next dimension of knowledge. Fortunately, present day research communicators have many freely available personalized digital tools to outreach to global research audiences having similar research interests. These tools and techniques, already adopted by many researchers in different subject areas across the world, should be enthusiastically utilized by LIS researchers for global dissemination of their scholarly research works. This newly found enthusiasm will soon become integral part of the positive habits and cultural practices of research communicators in LIS domain.

To stay productive and competitive, individual researchers must commit to transforming themselves into full digital communicators. Here are the seven habits that successful research communicators share: 

1. Create your unique author ID, an identifier for global researchers engaged in academic research. You may use ResearcherID.com or ORCID.org or both for generating your unique identifier. After registering for your unique identifier, upload your list of publications and make your profile public both in ResearcherID.com and ORCID.org.

2. Create your own researcher profile in a dedicated website or personalized webpage and provide up-to-date information about your scholarly research works. This will include list of your publications, presentations, research awards, recognitions, travel grants, research projects, latest published works, and professional or creative credentials. You may also create your personalized profile in a blog, using services of Blogger.com or Wordpress.com.

3. Create a researcher profile in academic social networks. Examples of most popular academic social networks are Academia.edu, ResearchGate.net, getCITED.org, SSRN.com, SlideShare.net, Linkedin.com, SkillShare.com, etc. Majority of these academic social networks have provisions of self-archiving of research papers by their registered users. Your deposited works are searchable within these platforms and also from the academic search engines such as Google Scholar, Microsoft Academic Search, or BASE: Bielefeld Academic Search Engine.

4. Share your published works in OA repositories, and also in academic social networks. Subject-specific OA repositories and institutional repositories are effective points of dissemination for published scholarly works. In the LIS field, E-LIS Repository (E-LIS: Eprints in Library and Information Science, Eprints.rclis.org) is very effective OA subject repository, similar to arXiv.org in physical and computer sciences. While making your published works open access, you should also make your empirical research data available to global researchers through open data repositories. If your institution does not maintain any institutional open data repository, you can self-archive your research data into FigShare.com or DataDryad.org. There are online services for cross searching OA knowledge repositories at the global level. One such service is the OAISter (OAIster.org), maintained by OCLC Inc. It indexes metadata from institutional, disciplinary and national-level OA knowledge repositories across the globe. If you have self-archived any of your published work in any OA repository, you can retrieve the relevant information from OAISter database. Similarly, share your delivered lecture notes and lecture slides with Slideshare.net or Speakerdeck.com. Self-archiving is also possible in academic social networks by their registered users. Your deposited works in OA repositories or academic social networks are searchable from the academic search engines.

5. Create your profile in Google Scholar Citations and regularly track citations of your published papers. Google Scholar Citations (GSC) shows your h-index and i10-index scores, list of your publications and number of citations each one received. You need to register for GSC profile, upload your list of publications and make your GSC profile public. Similarly, also create your profile in ImpactStory.org for knowing research impact of your published papers, presentations or shared research data. However, ImpactStory.org has recently migrated to paid service model encouraging budding researchers to subscribe their service.

6. Participate in email-based discussion forums in your specialized area and discuss your research ideas or works in progress. Many scientific societies, associations of scholars and graduate schools run their dedicated email-based discussion forums, which are also known as listservs. Work in progress is a set of ongoing research projects. You may also promote published papers by circulating bibliographic information of your recently published papers. Share complete bibliographic information with abstracts and mention its DOI or URI. Don't attach full-text contents with your email, only correct URI or DOI can assist the interested members to locate your papers. 

7.  Make use of free online citation and reference managers. You may use EndNote Web, Mendeley, CiteULike, Zotero, Google Scholar Citations Library, or ProQuest's Flow, or combination of some of them, for generating and sharing your reference lists and subject bibliographies. Save and share your references online for accessing anytime and anywhere by you and other members in your dedicated groups. Your references, citations and sometimes full-text contents are accessible in cloud platforms through online reference managers.

Written By

 Anup Kumar Das

Jawaharlal Nehru University, India

Further Details:

• Das, Anup Kumar (2014). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Research Communicators. In: Charaibeti: Golden Jubilee Commemorative Volume (pp. 356-365). Kolkata, India: Department of Library and Information Science, Jadavpur University. ISBN: 9788192988603.

IE News "Banned pesticides detected in NCR farm produce: JNU study"

Banned pesticides detected in NCR farm produce: JNU study
by Pritha Chatterjee | The Indian Express, New Delhi | Posted: January 1, 2015 12:00 am
Over 20 banned pesticides under the category of organochlorines (OCPs) have been found in produce in Delhi-NCR in quantities that exceed the internationally defined permissible limits, a study conducted by Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) on 52 vegetable samples found.
The study, published in the international journal Environmental Science and Pollution Research, also measured health risk on the basis of annual vegetable consumption, age and body weight. The study found a high lifetime cancer risk in children and adults, which authors said was "serious concern for Delhi population".
Vegetable samples including radish, radish leaf, cauliflower, brinjal, okra, and smooth gourd were collected from Najafgarh, Mehrauli, Shahadra, Alipur, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Kanjhawala in 2012, to identify pesticide exposure in root, leafy and fruit type vegetables.
Professor P S Khillare, the corresponding author of the study, said, "The highest contamination was detected in cauliflower, followed by radish leaf, okra, radish, brinjal and smooth gourd in decreasing order. Cauliflower, had the highest exposed area as it is in direct contact with pesticide sprays. It had   the highest residual concentrations of these compounds."
The mean concentration of all 20 OCPs in cauliflower was significantly higher than radish leaves but the levels in the next three vegetables were comparable. This, Dr Khillare said, was possibly because all three are grown identically.
Among the 20 investigated OCPs, 17 were detected in all the vegetable samples with HCH — a combination of pesticides called hexachlorocyclohexane which is a banned category of pesticides — and DDT, which is banned in agricultural products.
"HCH was much higher than DDT because of indiscriminate use of the cheap pesticides," Sapna Chourasiya, the research scholar who has worked in the study, said.
She said in a survey of pesticides and fertilizers in shops in the areas where the vegetable samples were collected, none of the banned pesticides were identified.
Researchers said direct spray or atmospheric deposition is the most common pathway for contamination. "Vegetables grown in winter have lower photodegradation of pesticides," Dr Khillare explained.
The cancer risk attributed to OCP exposure is considerable, authors said. Exposure and health risks for children was found to be double that of adults, authors said.
Researchers said more government action is needed on the ground. "The ban seems to be only on paper. Environmental and health safety is directly linked to poverty and the government needs to act on the root cause," Khillare said.

Source: http://indianexpress.com/article/cities/delhi/banned-pesticides-detected-in-ncr-farm-produce-jnu-study/