The next frontier for public access: building channels of meaning | American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS)

"With Generative AI in the mix, more papers (of variable quality) are being produced more quickly. Adding to the complexity, 47% of Americans say scientists act as though they are superior to others, which doesn’t bode well for dialogue. Yet, populations with less education about science are willing to discuss science topics.

Certainly not all these stressors were created by open access, but nor did open access solve them. Today, we find ourselves in a place where free studies that post faster than they are comprehensively verified risk turning well-intentioned transparency into noise.

Openness for the sake of openness could find us having traded one barrier, access, for another: credibility. This could erode the very trust that public access aimed to build.

At science, we support public access, including through green open access policies we’ve held for over two decades. But we also care deeply about scientific integrity and community engagement."