A Small Act of Scientific Civil Disobedience by Margaret Beaton — YES! Magazine

lterrat's bookmarks 2017-03-14

Summary:

"Open access publishing, which removes the barrier of paywalls, remains a minor segment of the publishing landscape. 'Publish or perish' is still the canon in academia, but publishing in lesser-known, open access journals is viewed as risky for scientists without tenured positions.

In recognition of these issues, some scientists are leading the charge to alter how scientific research is disseminated. Decentralized article sharing, as happens on Twitter, is just one method used to bypass restrictions.

The website Sci-Hub enables users to search for and download journal content directly, bypassing publisher paywalls. Over 19 million cumulative users access hundreds of thousands of articles each day through Sci-Hub. The site has been compared to the music sharing service Napster and, just like Napster, is being hit by lawsuits from publishers; publishing giant Elsevier won an injunction against the site last year. For now, Sci-Hub’s founder (a graduate student) refuses to shut it down.

However, change is on the horizon.

More than 16,000 scientists have signed on to a boycott of Elsevier and refuse to publish in the company’s journals until fees are reduced. Some traditional outlets now allow authors to publish individual articles under Creative Commons license (for a fee). Although the publishing industry still holds ultimate power in disseminating research, more scientists are looking beyond the traditional model to ensure both that their work is accessible and that science itself is strengthened. Until then, there’s always Twitter."

Link:

http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/science/small-acts-of-scientific-civil-disobedience

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) » lterrat's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.paywalled oa.journals

Date tagged:

03/14/2017, 21:52

Date published:

03/14/2017, 17:52