Imperial Debate: Light And Heat On The RCUK Open Access Policy

It is two weeks since the meeting organised by the Imperial College Science Communication Forum to discuss the new open access policy announced by Research Councils UK (RCUK) in the light of the Finch Report. Richard Van Norden of Nature chaired an initial discussion between RCUK’s Mark Thorley and myself that kicked off a wide-ranging question and answer session. The audience was keen to probe the thinking behind the new policy and to explore how it might pan out in practice.

You can listen to the entire discussion or, if pushed for time, follow the tweets in Jon Tennant’s Storify version, read Paul Jump’s report in the Times Higher Education or have a look at Ian Mulvaney’s thoughtful summary.Preaching to the choir? (Photo by Anna Zecharia). There is no need for me to rehash what was a very useful discussion but I did want to pull out the points that have struck me most on the night.

I was a little surprised that Thorley started out rather defensively but perhaps that’s because he had already spent the day defending the RCUK policy at another meeting and was feeling a little bruised. If that is the case then I take my hat off to him for having the stamina to stay the course for the evening at Imperial...