Category Archives: Open Access

Page charges and OA policies

Posted on 11 June 2021 by Frank Norman

Much of my time in the past 12 months has been committed to preparing for compliance with the Coalition S / Wellcome open access policies. Because we have core funding from Wellcome this means that all research papers submitted on … Continue reading →

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How to value what cannot be measured?

Posted on 10 April 2019 by Stephen

The post below is a transcript of my opening remarks at the a Great Debate held earlier today at the European Geosciences Union 2019 meeting in Vienna. The debate asked us to consider the question: What value should we place on … Continue reading →

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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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Open access deposits to Europe PubMed Central – building skills

Posted on 19 September 2018 by Frank Norman

Blogpost by Kate Beeby and Frank Norman. Our funders’ open access policies mandate deposit of all primary research articles into Europe PubMed Central (ePMC). We opt for the Gold (immediate Open Access) route when we can, but if the publisher … Continue reading →

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What is open science?

Posted on 23 August 2018 by Frank Norman

The question Wikipedia suggests that open science began in the 17th century, with the start of the academic journal. Some say that open science started in 1957 with the establishment of the World Data Center system, for International Geophysical Year. … Continue reading →

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Disruptive publishing

Posted on 4 June 2018 by Frank Norman

To build a successful career in scientific research you need to understand the scientific publishing system. It is going through a period of change and innovation but has remained largely intact. Recently I and a colleague ran some ‘Disruptive Publishing’ … 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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Six questions about preprints

Posted on 9 May 2017 by Frank Norman

2017 is shaping up to be the year that preprints in biomedical sciences go mainstream. At the beginning of the year MRC and Wellcome Trust both moved to accept preprints in grant applications and scientific reviews. Another major UK biomedical … Continue reading →

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R2R – the Researcher to Reader conference

Posted on 4 April 2017 by Frank Norman

The R2R conference took place back in late February. It is an event more dominated than others (46%) by publishers – those on the business, strategy, and marketing side of the publishing industry. Smaller numbers come from libraries (15%), technology (12%) … Continue reading →

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Weird things from publishers part 94

Posted on 14 December 2016 by Frank Norman

Many of the things that publishers do are perplexing, frustrating or reek of exploitation (it’s arguable that even the act of selling us subscriptions falls into the latter category) . I wrote earlier this year about a perplexing and frustrating … Continue reading →

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