I wrote a post earlier today in relation to the #PDFTribute movement: Ten simple ways to share PDFs of your papers #PDFtribute. I wrote it largely to give people an outlet and information and ideas about how to better share PDFs of their academic work. I think the more people share the better.
However, I also got shit from my brother Michael – co founder of PLoS on Twitter about how this is partly a “feel good” action. I do think he underestimates the surge of anger over the death of Aaron Swartz and the momentum right now in the semi-civil disobedience being seen in the #PDFTribute movement. But I also think he is right in part. So, I thought I would follow up with suggestions for what people should do in the future to really support full and open access to the academic literature.
- Only publish in fully open access journals. See DOAJ — Directory of Open Access Journals.
- Do not do ANY work for non open access journals. That includes reviewing, suggesting reviewers, etc.
- Cancel all subscriptions to closed access journals. The subscription model is part of the problem.
- Work for open access journals.
- Embrace openness in other aspects of your academic work. See for example Open science – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia and Open Humanities Alliance
- Learn the difference between “open” and “freely available.” See Peter Suber, Open Access Overview (definition, introduction) and Open Access | PLOS
- Reward people in job hiring, merits and promotions for their level of openness. Do not reward them for closed activities.
- Lobby for more open access requirements at the Federal, State, and Institutional level. Make sure they are not mealy mouthed or mediocre. See What the UC “open access” policy should say for example.
- Embrace other changes in scientific publishing such as post-publication review that enable more rapid sharing of publications (see The Glacial Pace of Change in Scientific Publishing).
- Read up on what else you can do (e.g., Peter Suber, What you can do to promote open access) and come up with your own ideas. Oh and share them. Openly.
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Other ideas? Please post in comments.
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