Author Archives: Stephen

A Bill to Amend the Law of Defamation

Posted on May 20, 2012 by Stephen

The libel reform campaign has yielded a spring crop: a bill to amend the law of defamation was introduced to parliament in the Queen’s Speech on May 10th. This means that legislation to amend the lax libel laws of England and … Continue reading →

Posted in Libel Reform, Science & Politics | Tagged | 4 Comments

Finch Committee: Update

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Stephen

I reported before on the notes from earlier meetings of the Finch Committee, which was set up by Science Minister David WIlletts to formulate proposals for making publicly-funded research more accessible. The notes of their latest meeting, held on 27th … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged | 4 Comments

Manifest Sense

Posted on May 13, 2012 by Stephen

Mark Henderson’s The Geek Manifesto is a remarkable book. Though many of its themes are not new, it is difficult to imagine such a book being published as recently as five years ago. The Geek Manifesto provides a timely analysis … Continue reading →

Posted in Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Access to the Finch Committee on Open Access

Posted on May 5, 2012 by Stephen

The Finch Committee, set up last year by David Willetts to examine how UK-funded research findings can be made more accessible — and mentioned by the minister in his speech on the subject earlier this week — has been meeting … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 6 Comments

Willetts’ Speech on Open Access: Analysis

Posted on May 3, 2012 by Stephen

David Willetts, Britain’s minister for science and universities, trailed the announcements made in his speech on open access to the UK Publishers’ Association yesterday as a ‘seismic shift’. One learns to be wary of the more hyperbolic statements of government ministers … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 12 Comments

UK Government to lead the world to open access?

Posted on May 1, 2012 by Stephen

The open access buzz around the internet last week was all due to the announcement by senior faculty at Harvard that journal subscription prices were rising at an unsustainable rate and the call to colleagues to devote their publishing energies … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science, Science & Politics | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Harvard: we have a problem

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Stephen

This is astonishing. Harvard is one of the best and one of the wealthiest universities in the world but last week its Faculty Advisory Council* announced that it can no longer afford to maintain its subscriptions to academic journals. The announcement … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , , | 50 Comments

Eyes on the prize are blind to reality

Posted on April 22, 2012 by Stephen

Scientists’ quest for publication in journals with high impact factors is widely perceived as one of the more refractory barriers to the fuller adoption of open access, which I believe to be in the best interests of science. But the … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | Tagged , , , , | 56 Comments

What’s your favourite colour?

Posted on April 14, 2012 by Stephen

What’s your favourite colour? Anyone who has socialised with small children will have been confronted with this serious-faced interrogation at some point. It’s the sort of question that erupts as soon as young kids learn to verbalise the jumble of … Continue reading →

Posted in Protein Crystallography, Science | Tagged , , | 54 Comments

Hawking with Dinosaurs

Posted on April 3, 2012 by Stephen

Here is a ‘paper‘ that I think would not be accepted by PLoS ONE and yet it was the subject of a report on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 this morning, arguably the nation’s premier morning news show. … Continue reading →

Posted in Science & Media | Tagged , , | 24 Comments

PLoS ONE: from the Public Library of Sloppiness?

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Stephen

I had an argument with my colleague in the tea-room the other day. Gratifyingly, I learned he had been reading my blogposts on the subject of open access, but it soon became clear he did not entirely share my enthusiasm … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science, Scientific Life | Tagged , , , | 72 Comments

Fabulous night

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Stephen

Tonight, at the end of an exhausting day, I have few words, but it was beautifully clear so I have taken some pictures of the night sky. And made a short film. The photographs are by no means exemplary. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Astronomy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments