a <free_to_read> tag intended to signal whether and when a publication is available publicly without a requirement for payment or registration
a <license_ref> tag intended to point to a URI containing the licensing terms
no definition of the term Open Access
no specification as to which licenses are allowed, or whether and how they should be version-controlled
no provision for icons that may be suitable for signaling the content of the proposed tags.
WikiProject Open Access is working on a Wikimedia version of such a signaling of licensing information, intended to be compatible with the NISO recommendations but more geared towards openness.
Of note, the document contains a use case very similar to that of the Open Access Media Importer (by coincidence, also abbreviated OAMI):
A user wishes to use visual images from an article, either in a single case or in some automated re-use pipeline. Acting in good faith, the user seeks licensing information, e.g., at PubMed Central or a similar source, to ascertain his/her rights. However, in some cases the article licensing metadata is contradictory or incorrect. For example, an article might be properly licensed under CC BY, but the publisher (or whoever is adding metadata) is making conflicting licensing statements or identifies other restrictions not provided for in the license.1
The reference is incorrectly formatted but intended to go to the November 2012 Open Access report in this very GLAM newsletter. The NISO document is open for comments until February 4.
On December 1 in 2011, the first Open Access File of the Day was posted, and one file per day ever since. These files highlight the potential for reuse of scholarly materials in educational contexts, as well as the need for scholarly publications to be made available under open licenses to make that happen. Together, these 700+ files are used across 200 Wikimedia projects on over 30,000 pages that together gather on the order of 20 million page views per month.
December 31: A video of a leaping Alticus arnoldorum fish is embedded in a Scientific American post describing new research about the evolution of the camouflage colour pattern of the species. The attribution in the post to Wikimedia Commons highlights the role that Commons can play in amplifying the outreach potential of materials published in scholarly outlets.
The following represents a selection of the ca. 400 files that have been uploaded by the Open Access Media Importer this month, bringing the total to over 14,900. If you can think of wiki pages where these files could be useful, please put them in there or let us know.