I’ve just published the article ‘Open Access, Plan S and ‘Radically Liberatory’ Forms of Academic Freedom’ in the journal Development and Change . Abstract below. Link: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12640 Abstract This opinion piece interrogates the position that open access policies infringe academic freedom.

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Originally posted on the LSE Impact Blog The production and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine is unquestionably good news and hopefully heralds the beginning of the end of the global pandemic. Much of this progress is down to the spirit of collaboration shown by scientists around the world in the race to beat the virus.

Our lab is growing! In our Three Questions series, we’re profiling each of our members and the amazing work they’re doing. Today, we’re highlighting Leigh-Ann Butler, a master’s student at the University of Ottawa’s School of Information Studies, a Policy Analyst at the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), and a research assistant at the ScholCommLab.

A hellish year is over and a vaccine is rolling out. Let’s be thankful for science.

Our lab is growing! In our Three Questions series, we’re profiling each of our members and the amazing work they’re doing. Today, we’re highlighting Isabella Peters, a new research associate at the ScholCommLab and a professor of Web Science at the ZBW Leibniz Information Centre for Economics and CAU Kiel University.

There has been some outrage at the announcement that Nature is following through with their 2004 declaration of charging ~10k ($/€) in article processing charges (APCs). However, not only have these charges been 16 years in the making but the original declaration was made not on some obscure blog, but at a UK parliamentary inquiry. So nobody could rightfully claim that we couldn’t have seen this development coming from miles away.

Last week, there was a lot of outrage at the announcement of Nature’s new pricing options for their open access articles. People took to twitter to voice their, ahem, concern. Some examples: There are many more that all express their outrage at the gall of Nature to charge their authors these sums,. even Forbes interviewed some of them.

Our lab is growing! In our Three Questions series, we’re profiling each of our members and the amazing work they’re doing—starting with DeDe Dawson. An Associate Librarian at the University of Saskatchewan, DeDe is a visiting scholar with the lab who is passionate about scholarly communication, open access, and advocating for a transition to more equitable and sustainable journal publishing models.

“I am convinced that openness and transparency make research outputs and outcomes better,” says Stefanie Haustein when asked what motivates her to practice open scholarship. “Knowledge produced by the scholarly community should be open to all, not hidden behind paywalls.”