Could Distributed Peer Review Better Decide Grant Funding?
The landscape of academic grant funding is notoriously competitive and plagued by lengthy, bureaucratic processes, exacerbated by difficulties in finding willing reviewers. Distributed […]
In Age of Open Science, Should Your Presentation Appear Online?
Elie Diner presents arguments for and against sharing research presentations online, arguing that sharing research presentations should be seen as part of the mainstream of open scholarship and is a natural way for academics to present their preliminary findings.
![Plan S[how me the money]: Academic-led Initiatives vs. Less Costly Publishing Future](https://www.socialsciencespace.com/wp-content/uploads/money-scale.jpg "Plan S[how me the money]: Academic-led Initiatives vs. Less Costly Publishing Future")
Plan S[how me the money]: Academic-led Initiatives vs. Less Costly Publishing Future
Plan S represents an exciting example of the scholarly community mobilizing to create funding requirements that could lead to an open access future. However, the plan has also raised a number of legitimate concerns, not least the absence of any incentive for publishers to lower journal costs. Brian Cody suggests how simple adjustments to the proposed article processing charge cap could encourage publishers to reduce costs and so free up funds for other open access projects.
Why Developing Countries are Vulnerable to Predatory Journals
Predatory publications are different from mainstream journals because they charge exorbitant fees to publish the articles they solicit, and they don’t follow any of the quality assurance processes expected in academic publication. Academics in the developing world have become a favorite target for these journals, and many seem to be falling into the trap. We need to ask why.
Free the Data to Move Towards Open Science
A survey of environmental research shows only 26 percent of the projects made their data accessible, despite data-sharing requirements from funders. In this commentary, lead author Jessica Couture urges data sharing for open science.
Open Access and Learned Societies: An Update
Publishing remains a key part of the mission of many British learned societies, as does disseminating scholarship and staying afloat. A new report appearing in December, and previewed at a September meeting, will offer some direction for organizations trying to reduce the tension that open access may create among those goals.
Who Will Challenge the Predators Now That Beall’s List is Gone?
University librarian Jeffrey Beall used to write a blog that identified by name what he saw as predatory publishers of academic journals. Since he suddenly shut down the site earlier this month, will –or even should — someone else pick up the baton?
Introducing SocArXiv — an Open Archive for Social Science
Sociologist Philip Cohen of the University of Maryland introduces SocArxiv, a fast, free, open paper server to encourage wider open scholarship in the social sciences.
Could ‘Faculty Publication Funds’ Drive Gold OA?
Having tracked and analysed the usage data of one university’s central open access fund over eight years, Stephen Pinfield finds that mandates, particularly if accompanied by funding, have played a very important role in encouraging uptake of Gold OA.
