Access to science and scholarship: key questions about the future of research publishing
Name
Access to science and scholarship - MIT report v1.5.pdf
Size
3.64 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
6cfc1a179caf13ef71b33c6d2608195f
Author(s)
Sharp, Phillip
Bonvillian, William
Desimone, Robert
Imperiali, Barbara
Karger, David
Mavhunga, Chakanetsa
Brand, Amy
Lindsay, Nick
Stebbins, Michael
Date Issued
October 11, 2023
Abstract
The health of the research enterprise is closely tied to the effectiveness of the
scientific and scholarly publishing ecosystem. Policy-, technology-, and
market-driven changes in publishing models over the last two decades have
triggered a number of disruptions within this ecosystem:
● Ongoing increases in the cost of journal publishing, with dominant open
access models shifting costs from subscribers to authors
● Significant consolidation and vertical (supply chain) integration in the
publishing industry, and a decline in society-owned subscription journals
that have long subsidized scientific and scholarly societies
● A dramatic increase in the number of “predatory” journals with substandard
peer review
● Decline in the purchasing power of academic libraries relative to the quantity
and cost of published research
To illustrate how researcher behavior, funder policies, and publisher business
models and incentives interact, this report presents an historical overview of open
access publishing. The report also provides a list of key questions for further
investigation to understand, measure, and best prepare for the impact of new
policies related to open access in research publishing, categorized into six general
areas: access and business models, research data, preprint publishing, peer review,
costs to researchers and universities, and infrastructure.
Subjects
Open science, publishing models, academic publishing, peer review, misinformation
open access
Terms of Use
Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 United States
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