Independent Thinking on Publishing's Future
Introduction For decades, the dominant academic publishing ecosystem has been one where research, often funded by public money, is locked behind expensive subscription paywalls. This has fueled a crisis of access, disproportionately affecting institutions and scholars in the Global South and the public at large. Enter open access, a movement aiming to liberate research from … Read more
Introduction The promise of open access was a thrilling, almost utopian vision for scholarly publishing: immediate, free access to research for everyone, everywhere. It was supposed to tear down the paywalls that had turned publicly funded knowledge into a commodity accessible only to well-endowed institutions. Among the various open access models that emerged, Gold Open … Read more
Introduction The open access movement, with its foundational belief that scholarly research should be free to read and reuse, represents a seismic shift in the world of publishing. It emerged as a radical counterpoint to the traditional, subscription-based model, which critics often lambasted as the “serials crisis,” a system where publicly funded research was locked … Read more
Introduction The open access (OA) movement has dramatically shifted the academic publishing landscape over the past two decades. With the rise of digital publishing and a growing demand for equitable access to publicly funded research, two influential models have emerged in global conversations: Diamond Open Access and Plan S. Each represents a different philosophy and … Read more
Introduction Diamond Open Access journals charge neither readers nor authors, which makes them the most equitable model in scholarly publishing and also the hardest to fund. This article asks whether Diamond OA can grow from a large but under-resourced sector into a mainstream alternative, and what funders, institutions and editors would need to do. Key … Read more