by Caroline Winter | 17 November 2023 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
Research security—the ability to identify risks to research processes and outputs and take measures to mitigate them—is a longstanding concern for the research community and its stakeholders, from individuals to national governments. Although openness and collaboration are essential for advancing research, greater openness can also lead to greater risks. Securing digital data, knowledge, and other intangible outputs is especially challenging. This was made evident during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the pivot to virtual work environments and unprecedented levels of global collaboration and research sharing was accompanied by increased security threats (see “Open Scholarship and COVID-19”).
by Caroline Winter | 15 September 2023 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
On March 15, 2022, the Budapest Open Access Initiative (BOAI) celebrated its 20th anniversary by releasing four new high-level recommendations—along with detailed sub-recommendations and further elaborations—focusing on community-led open access (OA) and global equity, and addressing key challenges for the coming decade (BOAI 2022).
by Caroline Winter | 28 July 2023 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
The intersection of intellectual property rights (IPR) and open scholarship has long been an issue of interest for the research community and for industry. Intellectual property policies and legislation aim to balance the moral and economic rights of creators in their works with the rights and interests of the broader public. The need to understand how IPR and open scholarship interact has become more pressing as the open scholarship movement has advanced. This is particularly true in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted the power of open, collaborative research to address complex, global challenges (see “Open Scholarship and COVID-19”).
by Talya Jesperson | 17 May 2023 | Community News, English, Observations and Responses
Over the last decade, Open Access (OA) has gained support among researchers and policymakers, with increasingly vocal advocacy for free online access to scholarly work. While incorporating Open Access policies in Canada reflects a rapidly changing publishing landscape, with the rise of digitalization and the pressing need to broaden access, the barriers to making Open Access a widespread reality are many and complex.
by Caroline Winter | 17 March 2023 | English, Observations, Observations and Responses
For the past decade or more, a trend has been observed in the scholarly communications ecosystem toward market consolidation, with fewer companies owning increasing shares of the market. A study by Data Think estimated that, in 2021, very large publishers (those with more than 500 journals) accounted for only 0.06% of the publishers in their study but published nearly half—47%—of all articles (Pollock 2022). This increasing market consolidation has raised concerns in the open scholarship community and in the broader academic community.
