Category Archives: Open Access

Can we amend the laws of scholarly publication?

Posted on April 29, 2015 by Stephen

As part of its celebrations to mark the 350th anniversary of the publication of Philosophical Transactions, the world’s longest-running scientific journal, the Royal Society has organised a conference to examine ‘The Future of Scholarly Scientific Communication’. The first half of the meeting, held over … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | 16 Comments

Open access: a national licence is not the answer

Posted on April 8, 2015 by Stephen

“Open Access: Is a national licence the answer?” is a proposal by David Price and Sarah Chaytor of University College London for a mechanism to provide full access to everyone within the UK to all published research. It was published on 31 … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , | 10 Comments

Open letter to the Publishers Association: please amend your open access decision tree

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Stephen

Dear Publishers Association I ask that you amend the open access decision tree you created for incorporation into the guidance notes accompanying the Open Access (OA) policy announced by Research Councils UK (RCUK) in 2013. It may seem odd to … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , | 9 Comments

Open access and the humanities

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Stephen

At the end of 2013 and 2014 I wrote blog posts on Occam’s Corner (over at the Guardian) to list and briefly review the books I read in each of those years. I want to develop this practice into a good habit … Continue reading →

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Copyright Infringement

Posted on November 22, 2014 by Stephen

This morning I received an email from a publisher inviting me to write a chapter for an ‘upcoming hardcover edited collection’ on a topic of research to which I have made a number of contributions over the years. I politely declined because of … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | 14 Comments

Open Access — yes you can

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Stephen

For researchers who have never dipped a toe into the debates on open access that surge across the blogosphere it is all too easy to imagine that they need not get involved. For sure, people are increasingly aware that a decision … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , | 25 Comments

Open Access – reasons to be cheerful: a reply to Agrawal

Posted on April 2, 2014 by Stephen

A opinion piece by Anurag Agrawal that was rather skeptical about some aspects of moves toward open access was published in the March issue of Trends in Plant Sciences. I felt several of the arguments advanced by Agrawal were rather … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , | 4 Comments

The Schekman Manoeuvre

Posted on December 12, 2013 by Stephen

This is the original version (with the original title) of an article that has been published at The Conversation.  Having climbed all the way to the Nobel prize on a ladder made of Nature, Science and Cell papers, biologist Randy Schekman has … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Why Elsevier is completely in the right… and totally wrong

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Stephen

The internet was all aflutter last week because Elsevier has sent thousands of take-down notices to Academia.edu, a social networking site where many researchers post and share their published papers. This marks a significant change of tack for Elsevier. Previously … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Open Access Headaches

Posted on November 3, 2013 by Stephen

Tense, nervous headache? Feelings of confusion? Mood swings from warm optimism to a gnawing sense of futility? You’ve been reading about open access again, haven’t you? I know because I have and I recognise the symptoms.  Open access week came … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , , , | 6 Comments

Impact factors are clouding our judgement

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Stephen

Nature has an interesting news feature this week on impact factors. Eugenie Samuel Reich’s article — part of a special supplement covering various aspects of the rather ill-defined notion of impact — explores whether publication in journals such as Nature or Science is … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access, Scientific Life | Tagged , | 27 Comments

Parliamentary committee slams UK policy on open access

Posted on September 10, 2013 by Stephen

The UK House of Commons has its dander up. Having bloodied the prime minister over Syria in the past fortnight, the select committee of MPs that oversees the work of the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has issued … Continue reading →

Posted in Open Access | Tagged , , | 20 Comments