Open and Shut?: The State of Open Access

"During the time I was running the series I had a number of people suggest to me that, in fairness, I too should give my views on the current state of open access. I was initially resistant to the idea, since I see myself more as an observer of the movement than a participant. After giving it some thought, however, I concluded that — in the interests of transparency and openness if nothing else — I ought to be prepared to answer the kind of questions I put to my interviewees. I am therefore today publishing answers to a set of 11 questions that were put to me by neurobiologist and open access advocate Björn Brembs. (Brembs was one of those I interviewed, and his Q&A is here). For those interested in reading my answers I have put them in a downloadable PDF file. But be warned gentle reader, the PDF is 28 pages long. I know, I know, it is too long. But I am not going to apologise. I am not going to apologise because it seems to me that most of the commentary one reads on OA today tends to take place either on Twitter, in short fiery blog posts by OA advocates, or in self-congratulatory articles and communications by publishers. Moreover, much of this commentary tends to consist of assertions rather than reasoned argument, and much of it amounts to little more than cheer leading, or attacks on those who hold different views about OA. That, of course, is the way of the world. But I feel there should be space for longer, more reflective pieces too, which I hope I have achieved in my answers to Brembs. I do not anticipate that many, if any, OA advocates will agree with most what I say, and I don’t expect publishers to agree either. But for good or bad they represent the views of someone who has been observing and reporting on the OA movement for more than a decade.  Feel free to ignore them! For those who prefer not to download long PDFs here is a bullet list of some of the things I say ..."