Category Archives: Open Access

How to value what cannot be measured?

Posted on April 10, 2019 by Stephen

This post 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 contributions … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, Open Access, Science, Science & Politics | 2 Comments

Academic freedom and responsibility: why Plan S is not unethical

Posted on October 1, 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 →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , | 49 Comments

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

Posted on October 3, 2017 by Stephen

Last week Elsevier’s VP for Policy and Communications, Gemma Hersh, 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 →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged | 6 Comments

Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Stephen

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a researcher in possession of interesting experimental results, must be in want of a journal with a high impact factor. It is also true – and widely understood – that journal impact factors … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, Open Access | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Pride and Prejudice and journal citation distributions

ICYMI No. 5: Asking universities to be open about research assessment

Posted on May 14, 2016 by Stephen

I first wrote about the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) when it was launched in May 2013. DORA is a simple statement asking the different players in the business of academic research to free themselves from the damaging … Continue reading →

Posted in ICYMI, Open Access | Tagged | Comments Off on ICYMI No. 5: Asking universities to be open about research assessment

ICYMI No. 3: Academic publishing on the radio

Posted on March 30, 2016 by Stephen

This is rather self-serving, even by my standards, but I made a plan with these “In Case You Missed It” posts and I’m sticking to it. I have been on the radio a couple of times in the past month … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, ICYMI, Open Access | Comments Off on ICYMI No. 3: Academic publishing on the radio

Combining preprints and post-publication peer review: a new (big) deal?

Posted on February 6, 2016 by Stephen

Stimulated, I believe, by Ron Vale’s call to preprints last year, various luminaries from the world of science and science publishing will be gathering in Maryland at the headquarters of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) later this month to … Continue reading →

Posted in Academic publishing, Open Access | Tagged , | 2 Comments

ICYMI No.1: Preprints for biologists

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Stephen

Since I have developed a habit of writing elsewhere, which necessarily takes time and words away from the blog here at Reciprocal Space, I thought I would try to make amends by developing the habit of linking to the pieces … Continue reading →

Posted in ICYMI, Open Access, Science | Tagged , , | Comments Off on ICYMI No.1: Preprints for biologists

Jolly good fellows: Royal Society publishes journal citation distributions

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Stephen

Full marks and a side order of brownie points for the Royal Society: they have started publishing the citation distributions for all their journals. This might seem like an unusual and rather technical move to celebrate but it matters. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science | 4 Comments

Pre-prints: just do it?

Posted on July 17, 2015 by Stephen

There is momentum building behind the adoption of pre-print servers in the life sciences. Ron Vale, a professor of cellular and molecular pharmacology at UCSF and Lasker Award winner, has just added a further powerful impulse to this movement in … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Science, Scientific Life | 16 Comments

Data not shown: time to distribute some common sense about impact factors

Posted on June 23, 2015 by Stephen

It’s that time of year when all clear-thinking people die a little inside: the latest set of journal impact factors has just been released. Although there was an initial flurry of activity on Twitter last week when the 2015 Journal … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | 10 Comments