[LINK] Open access science

[Tom Worthington]

On 26/11/20 10:00 pm, Roger Clarke wrote:

>> Some OA advocates criticize Springer Nature’s fee as too high. ...

If funders allow academics to hand the results of research to a company 
for free to make money from, the company can't be blamed for accepting 
this windfall.

>> it is a “prestige tax” ...

Yes, it is a prestige tax, but at least with an upfront fee the tax is
not hidden, as is it is when it is buried in the university 
subscriptions budget.

> high rejection rates ... not ... guarantee higher quality ...

Rejection rates are used by academics as a measure of quality, although
that has problems. Likewise the high cost will be seen by some academics 
an indication of high quality (although they are not the ones paying).

> or discoverability ...

Open access papers are no more, or less, discoverable. But open access 
will remove the frustration of finding a paper, but then not being able 
to read it, because it is behind a paywall.

> “I think it would be absurd for any funder, university or author to 
> pay it,” he says. ...

I think it is absurd for any funder to pay researchers to write
papers, then pay more money so the researchers can read the papers.


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