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Articles on Open access

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The majority of edits to Wikipedia are done by volunteers. Flickr/mikeedesign

Paid editors on Wikipedia – should you be worried?

Whether you trust it or ignore it, Wikipedia is one of the most popular websites in the world and accessed by millions of people every day. So would you trust it any more (or even less) if you knew people…
Open access, as long as you’re a scientist. Shepherd Zhou/EPA

Humanities left behind as China embraces open access science

Two large Chinese funding bodies for scientific research are promoting so-called “open access” to research outcomes, according to an article in Nature. The Chinese Academy of Sciences and the National…
Too much information could be a recipe for disaster. Abode of Chaos

The next pandemic could be downloaded from the internet

Last October, scientists in California sequenced the DNA for the “type H” botulinum toxin. One gram of this toxin would be sufficient to kill half a billion people, making it the deadliest substance yet…
Researchers burned by copyright ‘take-downs’ do have other options. marfis75

Riled up by Elsevier’s take-downs? Time to embrace open access

The publishing giant Elsevier owns much of the world’s academic knowledge, in the form of article copyright. In the past few weeks it has stepped up enforcement of its property rights, issuing “take-down…
Randy Schekman: I will not publish in Nature, Science and Cell. James Kegley

Schekman’s ‘luxury journal’ boycott doesn’t go far enough

Recipients of this year’s Nobel Prizes converged on Stockholm to receive their medals, dine with the King and Queen, and be treated like the scientific royalty. For most this time is, understandably, about…
The demand for open access resulted in an explosion of refereed journals, free to anyone that wanted to view them. h_pampel/Flickr

Hoax highlights the pitfalls and perils of open access publishing

Open access has become the catch-cry of academic science, demanding all research be freely available to anyone. But it leaves open the question of how publishers are to make money. Traditionally, libraries…
Journal publishing is changing at a breakneck pace. Loughborough University Library

Hard Evidence: is open access working?

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…
Matthew Todd was honoured for his work on the Open Source Malaria project. ASAP Awards

Open Source Malaria project head wins Accelerating Science Award

Dr Matthew Todd – leader of the Open Source Malaria consortium in Sydney, senior lecturer at the University of Sydney and Conversation author – was awarded one of three Accelerating Science Awards in Washington…
Some say the academic book is dead, or at least, dying. But is that true? And is there anything to be done about it? Book image from www.shutterstock.com

The death of the academic book and the path to Open Access

Is publishing academic books a dying trade? And if so, are free e-books from universities likely to deal the final blow? The future of book publishing in general is hotly contested, but particularly so…
Isn’t open access better? fuzzcaminski

Flawed sting operation singles out open access journals

In a sting operation, John Bohannon, a correspondent of Science, claims to have exposed dodgy open access journals. His argument seems to be that, because of their business model, some journals are biased…
Open government. The word is spreading. joebeone

A century of opening up government gathers pace

The World Bank is to provide a $1.2 million grant to fund the Open Data Partnership for Development, a project with the Open Knowledge Foundation and the Open Data Institute. The aim is to help developing…
Judging the achievements of researchers should be much broader than just looking at their publications. Image from shutterstock.com

Quality not quantity: measuring the impact of published research

Few things are changing faster in the research world than publishing. The “open access” movement recognises that publicly-funded research should be freely available to everyone. Now more than a decade…
Open is not just a UK movement. stevecadman

UK’s open access policies have global consequences

A report released recently has highlighted how out of step the UK has become with the rest of the world on open access policies. The UK has sought to be a leader in making publicly-funded research openly…
The secrets neuroscientists unlock about a cat’s brain will simply be locked up again, behind paywalls. mayoofka

Neuroscientists need to embrace open access publishing too

His eyes brighten and his voice rises as he tells me about his latest results. He is excited. He should be. His lab is unravelling the details of how new memories are formed in the brain. Then I ask him…
We need to ask more questions before we plunge academia into a world of free and open journal research. Golden book image from www.shutterstock.com

All that’s gold, may not glitter: the harsh reality of open access

A recent article on The Conversation, “Busting the top five myths about open access publishing” is a spirited defense of open access (OA) publishing. The article, by ANU’s Danny Kingsley, outlined “myths…
There are plenty of myths about open access – are any of them true? Open lock image from www.shutterstock.com

Busting the top five myths about open access publishing

Rather than lock up knowledge in costly journals, increasingly universities and governments are recognising that publicly funded research should be open to all. This past year has seen new open access…
Academic journals have served their time behind bars. simonbooth

Open Access and the looming crisis in science

Foundation essay: This article on the open access and science by Björn Brembs is part of a series marking the launch of The Conversation in the UK. Our foundation essays are longer than our usual comment…

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