29 March 2013

Regional Focus: Europe

Upcoming event:

CERIS-CRS Seminar: Are EU Citizens Who are Roma also Potentially Refugees Outside the EU?, Toronto, 1 April 2013 [info]
 - Free and open to the public.

Publications:

Asylum in the EU27: The Number of Asylum Applicants Registered in the EU27 Rose to More than 330,000 in 2012 (Eurostat, March 2013) [text]

Campaign Brings Refugees into Focus (Estonian Human Rights Centre, March 2013) [text]

Fundamental Rights at Europe's Southern Sea Borders (EU Agency for Fundamental Human Rights, March 2013) [text]

Oral Statement by the Home Secretary to the House of Commons on the Future of UK Border Agency (UK Home Office, March 2013) [text]
- See also response from UK Refugee Council.

Irish Presidency Advances towards Common European Asylum System (Irish EU Presidency, March 2013) [text]
- See also related European Voice news story.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.   

Regional Focus: Australia/New Zealand

Opportunities:

Job vacancy: Refugee Protection Officer, NZ Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment [info]
- Apply by 3 April 2013.

Job vacancy: Protection Assistant (Legal), UNHCR Canberra [info]
- Apply by 5 April 2013.

Publications:

How Many Children are in Immigration Detention?, Policy Brief (Refugee Council of Australia, March 2013) [text]

Humanitarian Family Reunion: Challenges and Opportunities in a New Policy Context (RCOA & Settlement Council of Australia, March 2013) [text]
- Background paper for teleconference scheduled for 3 April 2013.

"Refugee Women in New Zealand: Findings and Recommendations," Women's Health Update, vol. 16, no. 4 (Dec. 2012; posted March 2013) [full-text]

Refugees in Indefinite Detention, Policy Brief (Refugee Council of Australia, March 2013) [text]

Seeing Migrants, Selecting Refugees: A Historical Study of Chinese Settlement in Canada and New Zealand, New Issues in Refugee Research, no. 252 (UNHCR, Jan. 2013) [text]

Multimedia:

New Land, New Life - The Inspiring Stories of Five Refugees [access]
- Refugees from the Horn of Africa who have settled in Australia tell their stories.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities. 

28 March 2013

Thematic Focus: Work Issues

Ad-hoc Query on Asylum Seekers' Access to the Labour Market (European Migration Network, Feb. 2013) [text]

Azerbaijan Internally Displaced Persons Youth Support Project: Youth Skills and Business Development (World Bank, Jan. 2013) [text]

Forced Labour: Current Issues and Debates, London, 9 January 2013 [access]
- Follow link for workshop presentations, including one entitled "Precarious Lives: Forced Labour, Exploitation and the UK Asylum System."

"The Migration and Labor Question Today: Imperialism, Unequal Development, and Forced Migration," Monthly Review, vol. 64, no. 9 (Feb. 2013) [text]

Working through Asylum: An Overview of Refugee and Asylum-Seekers’ Ability to Attain and Maintain Employment in Countries of Refuge (Birdsong's Law Blog, March 2013) [text]

Tagged Publications. 

Feature: Open Access - Part 2: Specific Journals

While forced migration researchers publish in a wide variety of scholarly journals that cover the full gamut of subject areas, I thought it might be useful to list some of the Gold OA titles specific to our field of study, as well as the self-archiving policies (Green OA) of key conventional journals.

1.  Open access journals (English-language titles that have been referenced on this blog over the past year):

Journal
Publisher
Peer review?
License?
Charges?
BioMed Central
Yes
CC BY
US$1690/
£1115*
UNESCO
Yes
No; copyright w/ publisher
None
Ìrìnkèrindò
Yes
No; copyright w/ publisher
None
IZA-Institute for the Study of Labor/Springer
Yes
CC BY
Yes, but paid by IZA
Feinstein International Center
No
No, but copyright w/ author
None
EV Research Inc.
Yes
CC BY-NC-ND
None
Khayrallah Program for Lebanese-American Studies, North Carolina State University
Yes
No; copyright w/ publisher
None
Centre for Refugee Studies
Yes
No: copyright w/ publisher
None
Ubiquity Press
Yes
CC BY
£100**
*As of 21 March 2013 (source)
**As of 27 March 2013 (source)

While this is not a comprehensive listing of Gold OA journals in which forced migration researchers potentially might publish, the titles highlighted here help to illustrate the various shades of Open Access that exist, specifically, the distinction made between "gratis OA" and "libre OA":
"Gratis OA removes price barriers but not permission barriers. It makes content free of charge but not free of copyright or licensing restrictions. It gives users no-fee access for reading but no more reuse rights than they already had through fair use or the local equivalent. ...By contrast, libre OA removes price barriers and at least some permission barriers. It lifts at least some copyright and licensing restrictions and permits at least some uses beyond fair use. " (Source: Peter Suber, 2008)
The RCUK policy has expressed a preference for the CC BY license, which can be equated with "libre OA."  So it would seem that authors with RCUK funding would likely not be able to publish in most of the OA journals listed above.  These titles are also the ones that, for the most part, do not charge APCs!

Many other OA journals do carry a CC BY license; these can be browsed on DOAJ.  And here is a list of other OA journals that forced migration authors have published in.


2.  Self-archiving policies of conventional journals

Journal
Publisher
Deposit postprint?
SS&H embargo period for IR?
Hybrid option available?
Wiley
Yes
24 months
Yes/US$3000
Brill
Yes
None
Yes/US$2800
Georgetown University
No
n/a
No
Emerald
Yes
None
No
Oxford University Press
Yes
24 months
No
Wiley
Yes
24 months
Yes/US$3000
Wiley
No?
n/a
No
Cambridge University Press
Yes
None
Yes/US$2700/£1695
Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins
No?
n/a
No
Taylor & Francis
Yes
18 months
Yes/US$2950/£1788
Taylor & Francis
Yes
18 months
Yes/US$2950/£1788
Brill
Yes
None
Yes/US$2800
Springer
Yes
None for author website; 12 months for IR
Yes/US$3000
Oxford University Press
Yes
24 months
Yes/US$3000/£1700
Oxford University Press
Yes
24 months
No
Oxford University Press
Yes
24 months
No
Elsevier
Yes
36 months (for RCUK mandate!); none for everyone else
Yes/$3000
*The InternationalReview of the Red Cross and Intervention provide delayed "gratis OA" to the full-texts of articles at alternate web sites.  

Notes: 
- SS&H refers to social sciences and humanities journals.
- I could not find specific information regarding the self-archiving of postprints for IMR and Intervention, hence the ?.
- The information above could very well change, but I believe it is fairly accurate at the time of this writing.  I used both the individual journal web sites and Sherpa RoMEO as sources.  Kudos to OUP for making its self-archiving policies the easiest to find!  With others, a lot of digging was required!

Some observations:  Most conventional journals listed above allow authors to deposit postprints in a repository.  However, there is the question of embargo periods, i.e., the period of time that must pass before a postprint can be deposited.  The RCUK policy is a bit confusing on this point; it seems to suggests that in certain situations, it would be okay with a 24-month embargo period (for SS&H journals), but ideally the embargo should be more in the range of 6-12 months (see p. 6 of the policy).

Brill, Cambridge University Press, and Emerald are the most flexible, imposing no embargo periods on the deposit; Springer requires an embargo period of 12 months for posting in an IR (but none for posting on an author's web site).  OUP, Taylor & Francis, and Wiley have embargo periods ranging from 18-24 months, so their journals may or may not qualify!  Elsevier's journal - with an embargo period of 36 months! - clearly would not.

For some, the solution might be to go with a hybrid OA option, which most of the journals above offer, upon payment of an APC.

UK-based researchers who receive RCUK funding no doubt have many questions about how to comply with the new policy that comes into effect on April 1st.  However, it has been recognized that a transition period will be needed to sort out many of the points raised in the policy.  Hopefully, this process will help to produce a consensus on the best way to provide Open Access in a way that accommodates all stakeholders!  (Is that pie in the sky, or what!)

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

27 March 2013

Regional Focus: Asia Pacific, esp. Afghanistan, North Korea

Afghanistan: Comprehensive Response Urgently Required as Displacement Crisis Worsens (IDMC, March 2013) [text via ReliefWeb]

Displacement in Afghanistan: Post-2014 Origins, Current Situation and Potential Flows (NATO Civil-Military Fusion Centre, March 2013) [text via ReliefWeb]

Hyeonseo Lee: My Escape from North Korea (TED Talks, Feb. 2013) [access]

New Report: Chronic Emergency in Urban Afghanistan (Danish Refugee Council, March 2013) [info]
- Contact DRC for copy of report.

North Korea Faces Heightened Human Rights Scrutiny (Brookings-LSE Project on Internal Displacement, March 2013) [text]

Regional Roundtable on Irregular Movements by Sea in the Asia-Pacific Region, Jakarta, 18-20 March 2013 [info]
- Part of the Bali Process; see also background information sheet and UNHCR news story.

Urban Refugees in Asia Pacific: Resiliency and Coping Strategies (APRRN, March 2013) [text]

Tagged Publications. 


Regional Focus: Africa

Cash or Coupons? Testing the Impacts of Cash versus Vouchers in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Working Paper, no. 320 (Center for Global Development, March 2013) [text via ReliefWeb]

DR Congo: Outdated Approach, Misplaced Priorities (Refugees International, March 2013) [text]

Hostages of the Gatekeepers: Abuses against Internally Displaced in Mogadishu, Somalia (Human Rights Watch, March 2013) [text]

The Kampala Convention on Internal Displacement in Africa: A Human Rights Milestone, Washington, DC, 26 March 2013 [access]
- Follow link for a podcast of this event.

My Journey to Dadaab (Refugees International Blog, March 2013) [text]

Scattered Dreams, Broken Promises: An Assessment of the Links between Girls’ Empowerment and Gender-based Violence in the Kyaka II Refugee Settlement, Uganda (Women's Refugee Commission, March 2013 [text via ReliefWeb]

Tagged Publications. 

26 March 2013

Feature: Open Access - Part 1: General Information

The Research Councils UK (RCUK) has crafted an Open Access policy that is due to come into effect on 1 April 2013.  While clarifications are still being sought and uncertainty remains, universities have begun to prepare their scholars for the inevitable transition (see, e.g, Oxford University's Open Access web pages).

I am not an Open Access (OA) expert, an academic or even in the UK, so I am not in a position to provide advice!  UK-based researchers seeking specific guidance on how to proceed post-April 1st will be able to use the currently-under-development SHERPA FACT resource.  In the interim, though, I thought it might be useful to highlight other resources already out there that can shed greater light on OA, particularly with respect to some of the terms introduced in the RCUK policy.

For starters, this is how an RCUK-compliant journal is defined:

"Currently – a journal is compliant if it allows the author to deposit a peer-reviewed version in a 3rd party repository [Green] within RCUK timeframes (we await confirmation – currently thought to be 12 months for scientific papers, apart from biomedical which remains at 6 months, and 24 months for Humanities & Social Science publications), or it allows immediate open access (Gold) with CC-BY attribution – normally this requires payment of an APC." (Source: Oxford Univ; bold added to highlight key terms which are elaborated on below)

So there are two ways to make your work OA:

1. Publish in an Open Access journal (Gold OA):
- To find a list of OA journals, visit the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ).
- While there, you can browse journal titles by the type of Creative Commons license that they use (note that  the RCUK policy has expressed a preference for CC-BY; more info. about licenses is available on the CC site).
-  You can also browse by the type of publication fee they charge, if any (note that most OA journals do not collect "Article Processing Charges," or APCs; see also this blog post from Peter Suber.)

An aside:  To learn more about some of the other business models used for Gold OA besides APCs, visit this page in the Open Access Directory (OAD).  One model is referred to as the "Hybrid OA Journal."  This is when a journal publishes a mix of non-OA and OA articles, with an APC charged for the latter; an example in the forced migration context is the Journal of Refugee Studies, which is included in Oxford University Press' Oxford Open initiative: Articles will be made OA with a payment of $3000.  (To my knowledge, only two JRS authors have used this route.)  Other "Publishers with Paid Options for Open Access (Hybrid OA)" are listed here.

2.  Deposit an eprint version of your article in an OA repository (Green OA; also referred to as "self-archiving"):
- If you are an academic researcher, your institution very likely already has a repository; alternatively, a repository may exist that collects the output of your given discipline or subject focus.  To locate both, check the Directory of Open Access Repositories (openDOAR) or the Registry of Open Access Repositories (ROAR).
- Examples of forced migration researchers who self-archive are here and here.
- Note that the RCUK definition above requires deposit of a peer-reviewed version of an article; as Peter Suber notes, "most conventional or non-OA publishers give standing permission for author-initiated green OA" for postprints (that is, "the text approved by peer review, not...the published edition,... [i.e. the] version of the text, without any subsequent copy editing, and without the journal's pagination or look-and-feel").
- Here is an example of what a postprint looks like.
- To determine whether your journal or publisher offers this standing permission, either visit the specific journal web site or search in the SHERPA/RoMEO database.  Using the Journal of Refugee Studies as an example once again: Its self-archiving policy is provided here, on the JRS site, and here in SHERPA/RoMEO.  It stipulates the following: "Authors may upload their accepted manuscript PDF ('a post-print') to institutional and/or centrally organized repositories, but must stipulate that public availability be delayed until 24 months after first online publication in the journal."
- This 24-month delay is referred to as an embargo period, or the Green OA "timeframes" in the RCUK policy quoted above.  As Oxford University notes, the actual duration of these time periods must still be confirmed, and will vary by disciplinary focus initially.  Ultimately, though, the RCUK seems to be aiming for no more than a six-month embargo period for all Green OA articles.
- Some publishers give permission to authors to deposit the final publisher's PDF in repositories; for a list, visit this page on the SHERPA/RoMEO site.

These are the basic concepts.  For much more information, check out the following:
- How to Make Your Work Open Access
- Open Access Overview
- Open Access: A Tale of Two Tables
- Open Access Scholarly Information Sourcebook

Tomorrow, I'll post information about specific forced migration journals that can be used to make your work either Gold or Green OA.

Tagged Publications and Web Sites/Tools.

More Events & Opportunities: April 2013

 Are EU Citizens Who are Roma also Potentially Refugees Outside the EU?, Toronto, 1 April 2013 [info]
- Free seminar open to the public.

Refugee Rights Day, Canada, 4 April 2013 [info]
- Theme is "Proud to Protect Refugees."

Consultancy with Global Detention Project [info]
- Consultant sought to "complete a report on immigration detention practices and policies in Arab Gulf States." Apply by 5 April 2013 (now extended to 1 May 2013).

CFP: Forced Migration: Global Perspectives and Practices, London, 12 June 2013 [info]
 - Abstract submission deadline is 15 April 2013.

FY 2013 Funding Opportunity Announcement for NGO Programs Benefiting Tibetan Refugees in South Asia [info]
- Proposal submission deadline is 15 April 2013.

InterAction Forum 2013, Arlington, VA, 29 April-1 May 2013 [info]
- Register by 15 April 2013.

RSC Public Seminar Series, Oxford, Trinity Term 2013 [info]
- First seminar will be held 24 April 2013.

CFP: Denaturalizing Climate Change: Migration, Mobilities and Spaces, Bremen, Germany, 31 October-1 November 2013 [info]
- Abstract submission deadline is 30 April 2013.

Related post:
- Events & Opportunities: April 2013

Tagged Events & Opportunities.  

Thematic Focus: Statelessness

Publications:

Innovations in Russian Legislation on Citizenship (European Network on Statelessness Blog, March 2013) [text]

Kuwait: Small Step Forward for Bidun Rights as 4,000 'Foreigners' Granted Citizenship (Amnesty International, March 2013) [text]

Reflections on Thailand (3): Is the Time Ripe for a Citizenship Campaign? (Statelessness Programme Blog, March 2013) [text]

Report on Statelessness in South Eastern Europe (UNHCR, Sept. 2011) [text]

Small Changes - Big Gains: An Action Plan to Prevent and Reduce Statelessness in the Kyrgyz Republic (UNHCR, 2010) [text]

Statelessness and Nationality in South Africa (Lawyers for Human Rights, March 2013) [text]

The Untold Dangers and Unfeasibility of a Global Registration of Stateless Persons: A Reply to Jay Milbrandt's 'Stateless' (SSRN, March 2013) [text]

Upcoming event:

The First Global Forum on Statelessness, The Hague, 15-17 September 2014 [info]
- Coincides with the 60th anniversary of the 1954 Convention relating to the Status of Stateless Persons; theme is "Exploring challenges and sharing good practices in research and policy on statelessness."  See also related blog post.  Watch for a call for papers.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.  

25 March 2013

More on "Crisis Migration"

Following on from my earlier post: I was introduced to the term "crisis migration" in this recent paper by Jane McAdam.  The paper is actually a preprint for a chapter in a forthcoming book entitled Migration and Humanitarian Crises: Causes, Consequences and Responses (Routledge, Feb. 2014).  The book, in turn, is just one of many outputs of a research project on humanitarian crises and human movement spearheaded by the Institute for the Study of International Migration (ISIM).

More information about the project is available in this summary report, including a list of forthcoming commissioned papers.  Some of these will be incorporated as chapters in the aforementioned book; summaries of others will be featured in an upcoming issue of Forced Migration Review (the call for papers for which is available; submissions are due 2 September 2013).

Other project activities have included a review workshop (see the summary report for info. on presentations, starting on p. 4), a panel discussion at the recent IASFM14 meeting in Kolkata, India, and a presentation at the recent "The Ethics and Politics of the Global Refugee Regime" workshop, held in Princeton on 14-16 March 2013.

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.  

Thematic Focus: Migration, esp. in Times of Crisis

Events & opportunities:

"Towards a Global Migration Governance Framework," Annual Jean-Gabriel Castel Conference, Toronto, 28 March 2013 [info]
- Features François Crépeau, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights of Migrants.

CFP: Interdisciplinary Workshop on "The Marketization of Migration Management," Istanbul, 20-21 June 2013 [info]
- Abstract deadline is 15 April 2013.

The Human Rights, Migration and Globalization Summer School 2013, Galway, Ireland,  8-12 July 2013 [info]
- Registration deadline is 31 May 2013.

Publications:

"Collapsing Societies and Forced Migration," Forced Migration Review 25th Anniversary Collection (March 2013) [text]
- "Looking through a displacement lens at environmental, technological, anthropological, political and other factors affecting societies now and in the past provides food for thought both on how we interpret the past and on how we envisage the future."

Conceptualizing 'Crisis Migration' (SSRN, March 2013) [text]
- "...Does framing different types of migration as 'crisis migration' – for example, movement spurred by natural disasters, civil war, the impacts of climate change, or nuclear and industrial accidents – help to illuminate the nature of such movement and the kinds of policy responses required to address it? Or is this just another term for 'forced migration'?...

Global Hearing on Refugees and Migration, The Hague, 4-5 June 2012 [text]
- Discussions focused on five key themes: "the impact of future demographic changes related to labour migration and refugees; political and social changes; the impact of the global economy; the urbanization of displaced people; and the impact of environmental and climate change on human mobility."

"Measures to Ensure Respect for and Protection of the Human Rights of all Migrants, with Particular Reference to Women and Children, as well as to Prevent and Combat Smuggling of Migrants and Trafficking in Persons, and to Ensure Regular, Orderly, and Safe Migration," Roundtable 2: 2013 High-Level Dialogue on International Migration and Development Series, New York, 20 Feb. 2013 [access]
- Follow link for agenda, background info., summary report, and video.

Migrants in Times of Crisis: An Emerging Protection Challenge (International Peace Institute, Feb. 2013) [text]
 - Meeting note for "Migrants in Times of Crisis: An Emerging Protection Challenge," New York, 9 Oct. 2012.

*More Migration & More Mixed? Trends to Watch in 2013 (Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat, Feb. 2013) [text]

*Updated

Tagged Publications and Events & Opportunities.