Author Archives: Stephen

Academic freedom and responsibility: why Plan S is not unethical

Posted on 1 October 2018 by Stephen

Since its announcement on 4th September the European Commission’s plan to make a radical shift towards open access (OA) has caused quite a stir. Backed by eleven* national funding agencies, the plan aims to make the research that they support free … Continue reading →

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Ten Years a Blogger

Posted on 9 September 2018 by Stephen

Today is the tenth anniversary of my very first blog post. When I look back at that day in 2008 when I set out my stall on Reciprocal Space it seems a long time ago and a long distance away. … Continue reading →

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DORA, the Leiden Manifesto & a university’s right to choose: a comment

Posted on 18 July 2018 by Stephen

The post below was written as a comment on Lizzie Gadd’s recent post explaining in some detail Loughborough University decision to base their approach to research assessment more on the Leiden Manifesto than DORA, the Declaration on Research Assessment. So you should … Continue reading →

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Ready-made citation distributions are a boost for responsible research assessment

Posted on 1 July 2018 by Stephen

Though a long-time critic of journal impact factors (JIFs), I was delighted when the latest batch was released by Clarivate last week. It’s not the JIFs themselves that I was glad to see (still alas quoted to a ridiculous level … Continue reading →

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Opening peer review for inspection and improvement

Posted on 12 February 2018 by Stephen

For me the most memorable event at last week’s ASAPbio-HHMI-Wellcome meeting on Peer Review, which took place at HHMI’s beautifully appointed headquarters on the outskirts of Washington DC, was losing a $100 bet to Mike Eisen. Who would have guessed he’d know … Continue reading →

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Why I don’t share Elsevier’s vision of the transition to open access

Posted on 3 October 2017 by Stephen

Last week Elsevier’s VP for Policy and Communications, Gemma ybridersh, published a think-piece on the company’s vision of the transition to open access (OA). She makes some valid points but glosses over others that I would like to pick up on. Some of … Continue reading →

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Does science need to be saved? A response to Sarewitz.

Posted on 25 September 2017 by Stephen

I wrote this piece a few months ago at the invitation of The New Atlantis. It was supposed to be one of a collection of responses to a polemical essay that they published last year on the parlous state of … Continue reading →

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BAMEed: the voices of the people

Posted on 25 June 2017 by Stephen

At the beginning of June I attended the first BAMEed conference. It was an unexpectedly memorable and inspiring occasion. Final panel discussion at #BAMEed2017 Though billed as an “unconference” – the sort of self-disorganising gathering popular among millennials of which old … Continue reading →

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University rankings are fake news. How do we fix them?

Posted on 16 May 2017 by Stephen

tagThis post is based on a short presentation I gave as part of a panel at a meeting today on Understanding Global University Rankings: Their Data and Influence, organised by HESPA (Higher Education Strategic Planners Association). Yes, it’s a ‘manel’ … Continue reading →

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The Cathedral on the Marsh

Posted on 13 May 2017 by Stephen

I’ve already shared this on Twitter and Facebook but wanted to post it here as a more permanent record. Two weeks ago i managed to fulfill the ambition, held since I had seen Nic Stacey’s and Jim Al-Khalili’s quite wonderful … Continue reading →

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