Arthur Sale, The Titanium Road Essays

Abstract: This is a collection of four essays written and selectively disseminated in June/July 2011. They address the question of how the world can best address the open access to research that the Internet offers. The four essays should be read in the following order: 1. An Inertial Tale; 2.Scholarly Revolutions; 3. The Titanium Road; 4. Converse. Experience has shown me that modern readers cannot handle reading substantial argumentative essays without motivation, so here is my summary. This set of essays suggests that the conventional open access strategies are largely failing. They help, but after a decade they have failed to reach the tipping point where open access becomes the norm and everyone bar a few recalcitrants adopt it. The first essay describes the situation we find ourselves in. Failure to achieve open access after years of work and quite obvious need. Secondly (and there is hardly anything to do with publication in this essay) let’s look at what a revolution is! The third essay deals with what social networking can offer, and currently Mendeley is the leader. It proposes that integration with researcher workflow is what we need to achieve, and we are failing on almost all accounts. Finally, I add an essay which is pure indulgence: an FAQ, as originally devised by Galileo.