{"id":225,"date":"2020-03-20T18:23:30","date_gmt":"2020-03-20T18:23:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/researchmatters\/?p=225"},"modified":"2020-03-20T18:27:25","modified_gmt":"2020-03-20T18:27:25","slug":"reflections-on-open-research-during-a-global-pandemic","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/researchmatters\/2020\/03\/20\/reflections-on-open-research-during-a-global-pandemic\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflections on Open Research during a Global Pandemic"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Due to the novel coronavirus pandemic which has spread to\nthe UK, The University of Southampton has shutdown normal campus-based\nactivities for the time being and after Easter we will be using digital\nteaching solutions. At times like these we need to reassess our priorities and\nadapt to the environment we now find ourselves in. Something that has become\napparent to me, as I observe the world rapidly changing\/adapting around me is\nthat activities promoted by the open research and research data teams in the\nLibrary Research Engagement Group are more important than they have been\nbefore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Unpaywalled
CC-BY Steven Vidovic 2020<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The University of Southampton has been advocating the removal of research from behind academic journals publishers\u2019 paywalls for decades. We all have our reasons and perspective on why our research should be more openly available, and no one argument is any more valid than the other, but recently Publishers have come across a new argument and responded. In the wake of the novel coronavirus, named COVID-19, many publishers have dropped their paywalls for content related to the outbreak. On the face of it, this is very progressive and philanthropic. Clearly, this move does make those publications more relevant and attractive to authors, which will in turn generate copy that can be charged for. However, let\u2019s not be too cynical \u2013 the motivations are likely to be humanitarian. Full disclosure: I worked in publishing once upon a time and would have advocated on humanitarian grounds and I know many wonderful ex-colleagues would too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there is an elephant in the room\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Publishers have dropped the paywall to ensure\nResearchers can rapidly read and respond to vital cutting-edge research in the\npeer-reviewed scholarly literature. *This* response to *that* problem is a\ntacit acceptance by the Publishers that their business model of encouraging\nauthors to sign over copyright or an exclusive right to publish (unless they\npay an inflated article processing charge (APC)) and locking research behind a\npaywall puts up barriers to rapid, interdisciplinary and international\nscientific progress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other diseases and problems in the World (e.g.\nmeeting the UN\u2019s\nSustainable Development Goals<\/a>) that need addressing and there are even\nthings that could hugely improve our lives that haven\u2019t even been thought of\nyet. Mixtures of blue skies thinking and serendipity have been responsible for\nmassive leaps forward in human technology. The\nUK government have just announced additional funds for blue skies research<\/a>,\nit\u2019s now our responsibility to increase serendipity by removing research from\nbehind the paywall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next time you go to publish, think about how you are going to remove content from behind the paywall. For more information on the repository (green) and publisher (gold) routes, see the Library Website<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article mainly focusses in on academic journals\npublishers, but as an aside, books publishers have also been making COVID-19\nrelated eBooks free to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

RESOURCES LINKED TO THIS ARTICLE:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Live feed of news articles and research on COVD-19 https:\/\/www.scitrus.com\/special\/novel%20coronavirus%20outbreak\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/www.who.int\/emergencies\/diseases\/novel-coronavirus-2019\/global-research-on-novel-coronavirus-2019-ncov<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A list of Publishers and Journals making COVID-19 articles\nfree to view, taken from Public Health England Knowledge & Library Services\n(20\/03\/20)<\/p>\n\n\n\n