Academic Research

See the following -

Open-Access Journals: A Perspective From Within

Jonathan Carroll | The Conversation | October 1, 2012

There’s an ongoing debate in the world of academic publishing about whether the public should be allowed open access to research publications we all pay for in the first place. Read More »

Open-Source Science Helps Father's Genetic Quest

Lisa M. Krieger | MedicalXpress | October 26, 2012

One tiny flaw in one gene in one little girl. That explains why Beatrice Rienhoff, 8, is so lean and leggy. But it took the communal contributions of many researchers - in an open-ended, open-source scientific search, led by her father - to solve Bea's singular mystery. Read More »

Openly Streamlining Peer Review

James Rosindell and William D. Pearse | PLOS.org | August 3, 2012

We are delighted to host our first guest post on Biologue  by James Rosindell and William D. Pearse  from Silwood Park, Imperial College London. They share their view on how we might improve peer review. Read More »

Opinion: Academic Publishing Is Broken

Michael P. Taylor | The Scientist | March 19, 2012

Academic publishers are currently up in arms about the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA)—a bill that has the perfectly reasonable goal of making publicly funded research available to the public that funded it. Read More »

Opinion: In Wake Of Aaron Swartz’s Death, Professors Should Consider Open Access

David Scheuermann | The Daily Reveille | January 22, 2013

I would like to focus on what I think was most important to Swartz: his determination to provide free and open access to scholarly research. As college students, it’s easy to take our access to the latest scholarly journals and research for granted. Paid for by our institution, most articles we need can be easily found and read in the library. Unfortunately for the general public, most scholarly research is sealed away behind paywalls.

Read More »

Opinion: Open-Access For The 3rd World

Cherry Mae Ignacio | The Scientist | March 21, 2013

Scientists should submit their work to open-access repositories to support research in parts of the world that don’t have access to the vast libraries of pay-wall-constrained literature. Read More »

OSU Adopts University-Wide Open Access Policy

Staff Writer | Albany Review | June 25, 2013

Oregon State University has officially adopted an open access policy requiring faculty members to make their scholarly articles available for free through the digital repository ScholarsArchive@OSU. Read More »

PeerJ Leads A High-Quality, Low-Cost New Breed Of Open-Access Publisher

Mike Taylor | The Guardian | February 12, 2013

A one-off fee allows researchers to publish as many papers as they like. The first open access PeerJ articles appear today Read More »

Persistent Myths About Open Access Scientific Publishing

Mike Taylor | The Guardian | April 17, 2012

A spate of recent articles in the Guardian have drawn attention to lots of reasons why open access to research publications is reasonable, beneficial and even inevitable. But two recent letters columns in the Guardian...have perpetuated some long-running misconceptions about open access that need to be addressed. Read More »

Public Research For Private Gain

Darwin BondGraham | East Bay Express | June 26, 2013

UC Regents recently approved a new corporate entity that will likely give a group of well-connected businesspeople control over how academic research is used. Read More »

Publish Or Perish? Now It’s Publish, Share, Track Or Perish

Roger Tagholm | Publishing Perspectives | March 27, 2014

Jan Reichelt, co-founder and president of Mendeley, at the Digital Minds Conference prior to the London Book Fair on Monday, April 7, 2014. The publishing industry, in common with many other content-based industries such as music and news, faces a challenge of “user engagement and technology disruption,” says Jan Reichelt, co-founder and president of Mendeley, the platform for managing and sharing research papers.

Read More »

Publishers Do Not Provide Peer-Review. We Do.

Mike Taylor | svpow.com | January 23, 2012

Publishers do not provide peer-review.  We do.  The same body of researchers that writes the papers for publishers also performs peer-review for publishers.  And we charge exactly the same amount: nothing.  Peer review is just one more gift that we give to the publishers.  It’s a gift that I don’t begrudge when the world can benefit from it, through open-access publishing.

Read More »

Publishers Flip Out, Call Bill To Provide Open Access To Federally Funded Works A 'Boondoggle'

Mike Masnick | Techdirt | February 20, 2013

A year ago, we wrote about Rep. Mike Doyle introducing an important bill to provide public access to publicly funded research. [...] Unlike just about any other publication, [academic] journals don't pay their writers (and in many subject areas, authors need to pay to submit), they don't pay the peer reviewers -- and then they charge positively insane amounts to university libraries... Read More »

Publishers Have A New Strategy For Neutralizing Open Access -- And It's Working

Glyn Moody | Techdirt | March 15, 2013

Over the last few years, Techdirt has been reporting on a steady stream of victories for open access. Along the way publishers have tried various counter-attacks, which all proved dismal failures. But there are signs that they have changed tack, and come up with a more subtle -- and increasingly successful -- approach. Read More »

Publishers' Copyright Move 'Could Limit Use Of Research'

Paul Jump | Times Higher Education | August 9, 2014

Scientific publishers producing model copyright licences will make it harder for academic research to be a “first class citizen of the web”...

Read More »