The big news in the move towards making publicly-funded research open and free, is the recruitment of Wikipedia co-founder, Jimmy Wales. He is tasked with helping the Government deliver its commitment to make all taxpayer funded academic research in Britain available online.
This is an interesting step forward, following the news at the end of last year that all research funded by Research Councils UK will be posted on a new open-access website. Jimmy Wales’s job will be to advise on the broader application of this across government and what standards are needed and how we can ensure the portal promotes collaboration and engagement.
Also on board is respected academic Dame Janet Finch, who has been asked to provide recommendations on how an open-access scheme for publicly-funded research might work in the UK.
Obviously, making publicly-funded research accessible isn’t a completely novel idea, the Agency has been pro-active in communicating the results of our research on our website, as have many others. But the idea of bringing all this research together, along with publishing underpinning data alongside research results, in a consistent format is a welcome development, as is the idea that it will be open to a more ‘public’ peer review.
There are clearly a number of implications to consider not only cost but issues around the peer-review process – which we certainly wouldn’t want to compromise.
The Brave New World we are looking forward to is going to put the consumer in the driving seat, at least as long as government funding supports it. To be both open and free though, it seems a sea-change is needed in the traditionally cosy relationship between academics and their publishers.