Making Open the Norm: Advancing Open Access Through Language - D-Scholarship@Pitt

We argue that linguistic features common in discourse around Open Access Publishing are socially constructed in ways that reinforce implicit bias against Open Access (OA) as both a movement and a practice. These biases materialize through common linguistic practices such as de-centering OA and highlighting the uncertainty of OA Publishing, resulting in “patchy endorsements” of the status quo of Subscription Publishing. Following previous research that demonstrates how educational content on Open Access (OA) can lead to cognitive load and biases that maintain the status quo in scholarly publishing, the authors analyze publicly available, online content from their own institutions with an eye towards how these biases manifest specifically in the practice of librarianship. Using examples from this analysis, we suggest strategies and intentional language that can be used by librarians and other OA advocates to counteract bias and shift towards a construction of OA Publishing as the status quo. Combining these small, intentional language adjustments with broader movements and initiatives to further Open Access, we can all contribute to a more open future.