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<\/a><\/p>\nLet’s keep this short. Twenty-twelve was, more than anything else, the year of open access. I picked up<\/a> on the issue back in January, incensed by Elsevier’s machinations over the Research Works Act, and haven’t let go since. It has been a long learning curve as, over the course of 32 blog posts<\/a>, I covered debates<\/a>, speeches<\/a>, the Finch Report<\/a>, the new RCUK policy<\/a> and the ongoing ructions about how exactly it is going to be implemented. Along the way I wrote two of my most popular blogposts \u2014 they are still attracting traffic to this day \u2014 the first about an argument over PLOS ONE<\/a> and the second, an impassioned plea for the end of impact factors<\/a>.<\/p>\n These blogposts stimulated a valuable discussion in the comment threads, from which I learned a great deal, but they also triggered invitations to contribute articles, to be interviewed on radio and TV and to speak at meetings and debates. Without ever intending to I have become a sort of mouthpiece. That’s not to say that my views are mature and ripe for dissemination to the wider world; they are very much still in gestation. I frankly don’t know how the UK’s declaration for gold OA (while still allowing green) will play out. Resistance to Finch has, if anything, grown since the release of the working group’s report in the summer and the RCUK’s announcements<\/a> of its mode of implementation; the latest salvoes have come from the Humanities and Social Sciences, history journals in particular having set themselves against the winds of change<\/a>.<\/p>\n The open access issue may seem vexed in many quarters but I remain optimistic. I never expected the Finch working group \u2014 and nor I suspect did they \u2014 to be able to produce proposals that would satisfy all parties. They have certainly shaken things up a bit and nobody knows how they will settle out. Only one thing is clear: there is more work to do and there are more arguments to be had in 2013.<\/p>\n Open access wasn’t the only science policy issue on my mind in 2012. The ongoing travails of the declining UK science budget were never far away, nor was the persistent question<\/a> of what sort of science merits public funding (answer: all sorts). I was delighted in November to be elected onto the Board of Directors at the Campaign for Science and Engineering<\/a> and look forward to continuing my education at the interface between science and politics (a frictive junction that has produced considerable heat and just a\u00a0little<\/a> light<\/a> of late).<\/p>\n I was more delighted still to witness back in May the introduction to parliament of a bill to amend the law on defamation<\/a> in England and Wales. This was the culmination of the libel reform campaign, which had kicked off in 2010 as Simon Singh was fighting off the erroneous claims of the scientifically illiterate British Chiropractic Association. The campaign has wide, indeed cross-party, support but the reform is not yet a done deal. The bill is presently at the committee stage in the House of Lords<\/a>\u00a0but still needs work to bolster the\u00a0public interest defence. The government has recently offered some concessions on this but the campaign would like to see more wrung out before finally, hopefully, the new law is enacted. Watch this space<\/a>.<\/p>\n There is life beyond campaigning \u2014 thank goodness. In August Occam’s Typewriter set up an Occam’s Corner<\/a> shop on the Guardian Science Blogs. Though terrifying at first \u2014 and though I’ve yet to find the right voice for this new venue and audience \u2014 it’s remarkable how quickly you can get used to things. I am enjoying the new surroundings and have started to have a little fun, at least with Simon Jenkins<\/a> and DNA<\/a>.<\/p>\n I had even more fun at Matilda<\/a> \u2014 I’m not big on musicals but it was sublime \u2014 and at the Edinburgh Festival where my personal highlights (apart, of course, from my daughter<\/a>) were Pappy’s Last Show Ever<\/em><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Tony Law’s Maximum Nonsense<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(follow the links and you can catch them too). On the scientific front, Jim Al-Khalili’s Order and Disorder<\/a><\/em>\u00a0was the most wonderful thing on television, while the transit of Venus<\/a> gave me a moment of purest astronomical joy.<\/p>\n And that is quite enough words for now; I think I can see the outline of the shore.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Christmas holiday has unmoored me. End of year exhaustion segued into a bout of ‘flu that knocked me onto my back, where I lay and ached, semi-detached by illness and medication as around me my family made preparations for … Continue reading ![\"London](\"http:\/\/farm8.staticflickr.com\/7200\/6929620839_fbf2f7d18b_n.jpg\")
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