Some open access journals — those that don’t charge their readers a fee — require that researchers pay to publish with them. Removing author fees helps more researchers to publish their work.
Expectations that academics raise funds themselves and aim to publish in certain ‘quality’ publications are shaping research and where it is published.
Philosopher Peter Singer has helped launch a new, pseudonymous journal for the discussion of unpopular views. Will this be a boon for free inquiry, or a way for researchers to shirk responsibility?
Mainstream academic publishing presents many obstacles to Indigenous authors, especially the conventional peer review process — but there are ways to overcome this.
If what you’re reading seems too good to be true, it just might be.
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Trump doesn’t just ignore science, he attacks it. Australia’s experts have an obligation to speak out on crises such as the coronavirus pandemic, even if it means picking a side in our politics.
The UC libraries let their Elsevier journal subscriptions lapse and now the publisher has cut their online access. It’s a painful milestone in the fight UC hopes may transform how journals get paid.
Open access journals come with hidden costs.
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Digital publishing hasn’t resulted in the free and open access to information many envisioned. Universities are increasingly fed up with a system they see as charging them for their own scholars’ labor.
Scientists are rewarded with funding and publications when they come up with innovative findings. But in the midst of a ‘reproducibility crisis,’ being new isn’t the only thing to value about research.
Predatory publishers are vultures feeding on academics’ worries about output and incentives.
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If there’s a general sense that academic publication is about knowledge dissemination rather than meeting performance targets, academics and universities become less vulnerable to predatory journals.
Locking articles away behind a paywall stifles access.
Elizabeth
In our institutions of higher education and our research labs, scholars first produce, then buy back, their own content. With the costs rising and access restricted, something’s got to give.
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