One thought on “The war to free science: How librarians, pirates, and funders are liberating the world’s academic research from paywalls.”
Selina Wang
Thank you, Megan, for sharing this interesting article!
I can’t hold my thoughts! Here are a few key statements which I agree with based on my experience dealing with vendors and publishers.
“Put another way: Publishers are still going to get paid. Open access just means the paychecks come at the front end.”
=> We pay $ up front for publishers to have enough funding in order for them to make the title Open Access.
“One key reason scientists, librarians, and funders can fight back is because other crusaders have made research more accessible. Enter the pirates.”
=> We rely on more people to join the publishing market and change the business model to reduce their profits.
“Even if the publishers lose ground on selling subscriptions, they’ll still offer a profitable service based on control of the content. Still, it’s not hard to imagine a future where more and more institutions of science simply ignore, or circumvent, the major publishers.”
=> I totally agree as long as we are still paying $ to the same vendors/publishers.
” “So it’s not technology or innovation holding science back from a revolution. “The biggest elephant in the room is how researchers are rewarded for the work they do,” said Theodora Bloom, the executive editor at BMJ.” ”
=> Here is the KEY. For example, we are still struggling to work out our honors on campus after more than 10 years. Faculty members are talking about “embargo,” which is a kind of paywalls. Have we started some “preprints” from faculty’s research papers on Digital Commons?
Anyway, I see that libraries have been facing the same challenges with film productions and distributors. Changes (?!?!) are always interesting.
Thank you, Megan, for sharing this interesting article!
I can’t hold my thoughts! Here are a few key statements which I agree with based on my experience dealing with vendors and publishers.
“Put another way: Publishers are still going to get paid. Open access just means the paychecks come at the front end.”
=> We pay $ up front for publishers to have enough funding in order for them to make the title Open Access.
“One key reason scientists, librarians, and funders can fight back is because other crusaders have made research more accessible. Enter the pirates.”
=> We rely on more people to join the publishing market and change the business model to reduce their profits.
“Even if the publishers lose ground on selling subscriptions, they’ll still offer a profitable service based on control of the content. Still, it’s not hard to imagine a future where more and more institutions of science simply ignore, or circumvent, the major publishers.”
=> I totally agree as long as we are still paying $ to the same vendors/publishers.
” “So it’s not technology or innovation holding science back from a revolution. “The biggest elephant in the room is how researchers are rewarded for the work they do,” said Theodora Bloom, the executive editor at BMJ.” ”
=> Here is the KEY. For example, we are still struggling to work out our honors on campus after more than 10 years. Faculty members are talking about “embargo,” which is a kind of paywalls. Have we started some “preprints” from faculty’s research papers on Digital Commons?
Anyway, I see that libraries have been facing the same challenges with film productions and distributors. Changes (?!?!) are always interesting.