Hated Science Publisher Elsevier To Help EU Monitor Open Science - Including Open Access
from the conflict-of-interest,-what-conflict-of-interest? dept
Techdirt has written many stories about the publisher Elsevier. They have all been pretty negative: the company seems determined to represent the worst of academic publishing. It's no surprise, then, that many academics loathe the company. Against that background, news that the EU "Open science Monitor" will use Elsevier as a subcontractor is surprising, to say the least. The official notice of the contract has some details of what the project involves:
the contractors will design, draft, execute and deliver a full-fledged monitoring system in order to determine open science scope, nature, impacts on science and scientific knowledge, and its socio-economic impacts. In turn, this will provide an evidence-based view of evolution of open science. It should be able to facilitate policy making.
One of the main academic participants in the project, the Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University -- which "stresses the importance of the collaboration with Elsevier" -- explains what is meant by open science in this context:
Open Science is an umbrella concept that embraces the ideas of different open movement such as open source, open access and open data, while embracing trends of open distributed collaboration, data-intensive science and citizen science. Governments are quickly moving towards the open science paradigm (see for instance the Dutch plan on Open Science), while asking for evidence about its reality and impact in the different domains.
An important element of Elsevier's contract will therefore be to help monitor open access. The core aim of open access is to make publicly-funded knowledge freely available to everyone, in a way that is as cost-efficient as possible given the limited resources that can be brought to bear on the problem. One of the issues with the current academic publishing system is the high level of costs for educational institutions, reflected in the level of profits notched up by companies like Elsevier. For many years these have typically been in the 35% to 40% range, well in excess of most other industries.
The fact that Elsevier will be paid to help monitor the dysfunctional publishing world it has helped to create and strives to sustain seems an insensitive decision. Moreover, the contract specifically calls for the "socio-economic impacts" to be evaluated in order to "facilitate policy making". This means that Elsevier will be providing data to guide EU policy decisions that it stands to gain from materially in significant ways. The obvious conflict of interest here should have disqualified the company immediately. But the main contractors seem to have no issues with ignoring this glaring problem, or with the fact that many EU researchers will regard Elsevier as the last organization on the planet that should be involved in any way.
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Filed Under: eu, locked up information, open access, open access monitor, paywalls
Companies: elsevier
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And the money goes round and round
Just what the hell is this commission thinking? They are supposed to be for opening the flow of information and they give a contract to a major player in the staunching of information flow, or rather profiting off the flow of information in such a way that it really isn't all that open.
It certainly leaves open the consideration as to what consideration was offered for the assignment of that contract choice.
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turd in the punchbowl
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I can see it now...
"It's bad, all of it, except for the part we control. That part is great, and we obviously need more funding for it."
I can't tell offhand if such blatant conflict of interest is a case of corruption or incompetence, though neither exactly look good.
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Re: I can see it now...
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Err.. all of this is dumb
Publishing complete and monitored
Centre for Science and Technology Studies at Leiden University you can send my presumably massive check to whyareacademicssodumb@getaclue
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Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
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Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
Then again, perhaps the current academic model needs to be reviewed and reinvented as well.
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Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
Do you suggest academia should be disallowed from sharing data? ... even amongst themselves?
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Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
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Re:
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Queue the law suits...
/s
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
The same process is used for the open journals, but not the pre-print journals, and acceptance by a journal has become the main ways of advancing an academic career.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
Really why is that?, you had to defend you findings for your PhD, for your funding why not have to defend your criticism, seems to me this is how it was in the original version of peer review which was a forum, you had to do it in person like defending your doctoral thesis, sorry but if your a tenured prof. that just completed a 3 year study on Air breathing mollusk basket weavers or whatever you have time to defend your results, debate and conflict is how science is advanced not blind acceptance and unknown "experts", that still have the ability to sabotage or advance careers with no consideration of merit or knowledge, peer review is to insure that your not lying or mental or just plain wrong, confrontation is necessary or the whole process is meaningless
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
In many of my papers, I've received great feedback which has improved my papers. Some has been quite critical, and that's OK. I'd hate for the reviewers to self-censor because they lost anonymity.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
I think I see the problem right there, If you cannot withstand opposition or challenge defeats the purpose of peer review.
If their criticism was so constructive, why is it hidden? it just disguises the rivalry and petty human stupidity that infests academia and limits human knowledge because ... reasons, ego, status, who am I kidding ..MONEY.
Your describing a broken system that leads to computer generated nonsense being accepted as real research by real journals.
Open..Transparent, these are simple concepts understood by pre-schoolers
If your not willing to put your reputation or credibility on the line don't review, if your not willing to be wrong DON'T DO SCIENCE.
These are easy human problems that simply require people to be responsible for their own idea's and actions, I know an alien concept for academia.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
That aside, academics are human. Possessed of all the same human frailties as anyone else. In an anonymous review, would I give the same review to someone I didn't know, a friend of 20 years or a leader in the field? Yes, absolutely. If my name is seen by them, would I subconsciously change language and conclusions if the authors were likely to have future power over me and my career? How would I prove that I haven't? Losing anonymity benefits established players, who are even more likely to get softer reviews than they currently do. It's not about putting your reputation on the line. You do that every time you publish a paper or give a presentation. It is about acknowledging an existing power structure and trying to limit the potential for harms either way.
I've had negative reviews, even ones where I thought the reviewer doesn't know what they're talking about. I'd rather not know who they are, because it means they can be fully honest.
And the review process isn't a simple matter of "this is right or wrong". A good reviewer will suggest ways the work can be improved or holes filled in. This will usually mean more work around the periphery that may or may not be of benefit. It is judgement calls all round.
And I do love that a fellow anonymous coward is criticising anonymity in another forum!
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
As for criticizing AC I'm not reviewing your work I'm arguing an ethical position, there is a difference there I dearly hope you can see.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Err.. all of this is dumb
The anonymity is there to mitigate against some of the worst potentials for abuse. Ultimately, between the editors and the reviewers, not as much gibberish gets through as in many other possible systems. But the issue isn't gibberish getting through. It is mediocre or flawed science getting through. I would argue that less gets through because of anonymity than would otherwise. As far as I can tell, your argument is that a reviewer sticking their name publicly to the review means they stick their reputation on their review. My argument is that their fear of negative effects from an author who definitely knows who they are outweighs any potential fear of loss of reputation from publication of their review. After all, the editors aren't anonymous and a paper has to be Andrew Wakefield level bad before they even get the tiniest blowback.
As for AC, you are engaging with and rebutting my arguments. You choose to do so anonymously. I respect your right to do so. Putting your name to it may mean you choose different words or self-censor. I choose to write comments anonymously because it means I face no repercussions for criticising systems I may need to work with. I don't write things I disagree with, but it may not always be politically smart to have my name associated with (a discussion on anonymity in the peer review process isn't one, but a habit is a habit)
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Wiley
Diana Kwon wrote an updated article with the reference to Wiley research team. She wrote that the confirmations as for the amount of publications are now depending on the researchers’ publishing choices. Judy Verses, the executive vice president of research at Wiley, said that they are now actively discussing the new licensing options with consortia in other countries.
As Elsevier falters, Wiley succeeds in open-access deal making and learning process
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Open source community let you make monitoring without any doubt so after you can make successful anything you want. For me it is very important to plat online casino slots with no registration deposit and instant withdrawal http://slots.io/casino/video-slots/jumanji
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nice
This is great news for Britain! There were going to lose most of the scientific research after Brexit, but now they will be looking pretty good.
David, writer at https://eduloh.com
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Eye opening
This is all very enlightening and concerning. Let's hope Britian comes out of it OK.
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Oooh, this is interesting! And it helps to avoid false information. I am happy with such innovations.
Yana, author at https://paytowriteessays.com.
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