Press release: Social Science Directory’s Launch

“An English-based entrepreneur is launching a new online publishing company that could revolutionise the way academic research is published globally from April 2012. Social Sciences Directory is an online database of academic research and other content such as presentations, interviews and news reports, as well as providing discussion forums through social media, including blogs, Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. Currently, Academics globally need to have their research published and submit it for free to a publisher, who edits the work and publishes it, but then sells it back to universities as a subscription which is often very highly priced. This means that the taxpayer pays twice – to fund the initial research and then to pay for the right to use it. The academic sector is reliant on publishing work in specific journals, which is at odds with students raised in the digital age and used to performing Google-style searches. Dan Scott, founder and director of Social Sciences Directory, commented: ‘The Global financial crisis has changed academic funding forever and surely means that subscription publishing is unsustainable. Social Sciences Directory will instead charge the academic £100 to cover editorial, peer review and production management costs. As well as being much cheaper, it will be quicker to publish... The internet and digital publishing have also had a real impact on learning. When I was at University in 1994, the library did not have a computer. Fast-forward to 2009 when I studied again, and all of the content I needed was downloaded remotely, so I only set-foot in the University library once! As well as academic journals, I used information from interviews, news reports, videos, and presentations. If the information came from a reliable source, I was happy to include it. Today’s students want what I call ‘e-stuff’ and want to discuss and review it across social media platforms...’”