Prime Minister Turnbull has signalled a desire to move away from a ‘publish or perish’ academic culture toward one that prioritises public impact and engagement. It’s a challenge scholars should embrace.
African research is largely invisible, kept in the shadows by publishing barriers and structural obstacles. A platform built in Brazil and rolled out across the developing world could be the solution.
African academics and universities have been caught in the predatory journal web. It’s time for the continent’s universities to start taking this threat to their integrity seriously.
We have the technology and the will to expand open access to publicly funded research, but large vested interests are still putting up stiff resistance.
The news that African universities will soon be ranked has generated a great deal of hype. But the initiative seems likely to be doomed from the start.
Much of what’s being said in support of open access publishing misses one key point: that is there is always a value chain and costs are incurred. Someone somewhere is paying for open access.
South Africa does some amazing research but cannot share it globally because of restrictive copyright laws or unreasonable policies and embargo periods set by publishers that limit their audience.
Academic metrics are only problematic if they’re poorly implemented. If they’re used carefully, they can be a powerful tool to allow talent to rise to the top.
When McDonald’s came under sustained criticism from campaigners in the 1980s, the company responded by constructing a carefully crafted image of corporate social responsibility. It insisted that it cared…
When the International Studies Association attempted to regulate the blogging activities of some of its members, the reaction was unsurprisingly hostile. The row has prompted coverage in academic outlets…
According to Peter Suber open access is academic literature which is “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions”. Open access delivered by journals is called…
It doesn’t matter whether or not you think it’s fair: if you’re an academic, your publishing record will have a crucial impact on your career. It can profoundly affect your prospects for employment, for…
The launch of a new academic journal doesn’t usually grab popular media interest. But the first journal of Porn Studies seems to have bucked the trend. For the most part, media coverage has contained more…
Science is a highly competitive business so measuring the impact of scientific research, meaningfully and objectively, is essential. The journal impact factor (JIF) has emerged over the past few decades…
In recent weeks we’ve seen a renewed push to introduce open access to science research publications. The concept is simple: research that is paid for by public funds should be made freely available, not…
While the Australian Research Council considers its policy on open-access publication and others within the scientific community call for the increased sharing of scientific data, the British are already…
Previous Vice President of the Academy of Science of South Africa and DSI-NRF SARChI chair in Fungal Genomics, Professor in Genetics, University of Pretoria, University of Pretoria
Director of Centre for Postgraduate Studies, Rhodes University & Visiting Research Professor in Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Rhodes University
Matthew Flinders Professor of Global Ecology and Models Theme Leader for the ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University