The MIT Press has released a comprehensive report that addresses how open access policies shape research and what is needed to maximize their positive impact on the research ecosystem.
The report, entitled “Access to Science and Scholarship 2024: Building an Evidence Base to Support the Future of Open Research Policy,” is the outcome of a National Science Foundation-funded workshop held at the Washington headquarters of the American Association for the Advancement of Science on Sept. 20.
While open access aims to democratize knowledge, its implementation has been a factor in the consolidation of the academic publishing industry, an explosion in published articles with inconsistent review and quality control, and new costs that may be hard for researchers and universities to bear, with less-affluent schools and regions facing the greatest risk. The workshop examined how open access and other open science policies may affect research and researchers in the future, how to measure their impact, and how to address emerging challenges.
The event brought together leading experts to discuss critical issues in open scientific and scholarly publishing. These issues include:
- the impact of open access policies on the research ecosystem;
- the enduring role of peer review in ensuring research quality;
- the challenges and opportunities of data sharing and curation; and
- the evolving landscape of scholarly communications infrastructure.
The report identifies key research questions in order to advance open science and scholarship. These include:
- How can we better model and anticipate the consequences of government policies on public access to science and scholarship?
- How can research funders support experimentation with new and more equitable business models for scientific publishing? and
- If the dissemination of scholarship is decoupled from peer review and evaluation, who is best suited to perform that evaluation, and how should that process be managed and funded?
“This workshop report is a crucial step in building a data-driven roadmap for the future of open science publishing and policy,” says Phillip Sharp, Institute Professor and professor of biology emeritus at MIT, and faculty lead of the working group behind the workshop and the report. “By identifying key research questions around infrastructure, training, technology, and business models, we aim to ensure that open science practices are sustainable and that they contribute to the highest quality research.”
The full report is available for download, along with video recordings of the workshop.
The MIT Press is a leading academic publisher committed to advancing knowledge and innovation. It publishes significant books and journals across a wide range of disciplines spanning science, technology, design, humanities, and social science.
