1. It’s publishing but not as you know it:
How Open is Changing Everything
Dr Danny Kingsley
Associate Librarian (Content &
Digital Library Strategy)
OA Week 2021 talk
27 October 2021

3. The plan
• The societal problem
• The academic sector problem
• The open solution
• Australia’s progress
• …. In less than 30 minutes!

4. Normative Structure of Science
Robert K Merton, “The Normative Structure of Science”, 1942 essay in The Sociology of Science
edited by Norman W Storer, published 1973 http://www.collier.sts.vt.edu/5424/pdfs/merton_1973.pdf
“Incipient and actual attacks upon the
integrity of science have led scientists to
recognize their dependence on particular
types of social structure. Manifestos and
pronouncements by associations of scientists
are devoted to the relations of science and
society. An institution under attack must re-
examine its foundations, restate its
objectives, seek out its rationale. Crisis
invites self-appraisal. Now that they have
been confronted with challenges to their way
of life, scientists have been jarred into a state
of acute self-consciousness: consciousness
of self as an integral element of society with
corresponding obligations and interests.”

5. Experts? (2018)
https://www.ft.com/content/3be49734-29cb-11e6-83e4-
abc22d5d108c
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/26/opinion/pruitt-attack-science-
epa.html
“Scott Pruitt, the
administrator of the
Environmental Protection
Agency, has announced
that he alone will decide
what is and isn’t
acceptable science for
the agency to use when
developing policies that
affect your health and the
environment.”
(Mr Pruitt is a lawyer.)

6. This really didn’t help
https://www.nature.com/articles/d415
86-020-01695-w
https://www.the-scientist.com/features/the-
surgisphere-scandal-what-went-wrong--67955
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PII
S0140-6736(20)31324-6/fulltext

7. Our new reality
https://thenorwichradical.com/2017/01/12/post-truth-politics-and-the-war-on-intellect/

8. Experts? (2021)
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-
news/2021/sep/15/tga-demands-craig-kellys-party-stop-
distributing-seriously-misleading-covid-information
https://www.news.com.au/entertainment/celebrity
-life/pete-evans-banned-from-instagram-for-
spreading-misinformation-about-covid/news-
story/d4dcdef8f9fa7cf010b20eb801f1ab74

9. We have to be above criticism
• “Incipient and actual attacks upon the integrity of science have
led scientists to recognize their dependence on particular types
of social structure. Manifestos and pronouncements by
associations of scientists are devoted to the relations of science
and society. An institution under attack must re-examine its
foundations, restate its objectives, seek out its rationale. Crisis
invites self-appraisal. Now that they have been confronted with
challenges to their way of life, scientists have been jarred into a
state of acute self-consciousness: consciousness of self as an
integral element of society with corresponding obligations and
interests.”

10. Visionary – and it still holds
• The four Mertonian norms of science (1942)
• universalism: scientific validity is independent of the
sociopolitical status/personal attributes of its participants
• communalism: all scientists should have common
ownership of scientific goods (intellectual property), to
promote collective collaboration; secrecy is the opposite of
this norm.
• disinterestedness: scientific institutions act for the benefit
of a common scientific enterprise, rather than for the
personal gain of individuals within them
• organized scepticism: scientific claims should be
exposed to critical scrutiny before being accepted: both in
methodology and institutional codes of conduct.

11. Something is wrong
https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/36801/1/MPRA_paper_36801.pdf

12. How did we get here?
Data gathering
Analysis
Writing
Publishing
Dissemination
Reuse
Assessment
The primary measure of success in academia is
publication of novel results in high impact journals

13. The incentive system is causing problems
Image: Flickr Jason Taellious reward – CC-BY-SA 2.0

14. Problem: Hyperauthorship
http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.114.191803
24 of the 33 pages of this paper listed the over 5,000 authors
(nine pages are the paper itself)

15. Problem: ‘Gaming’
http://retractionwatch.com/2017/04/20/new-record-major-publisher-
retracting-100-studies-cancer-journal-fake-peer-reviews/

16. Problem: Poor Science
http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/royopensci/3/9/160384.full.pdf

17. Problem: Risk averse research
• Scientists we interview
routinely say that they dare
not propose bold projects for
funding in part because of
expectations that they will
produce a steady stream of
papers in journals with high
impact scores.
• Our analysis of 15 years'
worth of citation data
suggests that common
bibliometric measures
relying on short-term
windows undervalue risky
research
• Research today is driven by last year’s
publications.
• Scientists write to influence reviewers
and editors in the process. … They use
strategic citation practices.
• The greater the novelty of the work the
greater likelihood it is to have a negative
review … Scientists understand the
novelty bias so they downplay the new
elements to the old elements.
Reviewers are blinkered by bibliometrics :
Nature News & Comment. 26 April 2017
http://www.nature.com/news/reviewers-are-
blinkered-by-bibliometrics-1.21877
Professor James Evans,
2015 Researcher to Reader conference
https://unlockingresearch.blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=539

18. Problem: Attrition crisis?
Hard work, little reward: Nature readers reveal working hours and research challenges,
Nature News, 4 November 2016, http://www.nature.com/news/hard-work-little-reward-
nature-readers-reveal-working-hours-and-research-challenges-1.20933

19. Problem: Rankings
https://www.international.unsw.edu.au/
https://future-students.uq.edu.au/why-choose-uq
https://www.qut.edu.au/about/achievements-and-recognition
https://www.sydney.edu.au/about-
us/our-world-rankings.html

20. Ranking is more profitable than
publishing
https://www.ft.com/content/21da8a6b-d5e9-473a-86e0-056c489d55bf

21. What do rankings measure?
Specifically, publication
in Science or Nature
Nobel Prizes & Field Medals
(awarded to research
‘stars’)
Papers indexed in a system
focused on Nth America
journals & research
published in English

22. Cause and Effect?
http://www.shanghairanking.com/ARWU-
Methodology-2019.html
https://www.science.org/content/article/cash-
bonuses-peer-reviewed-papers-go-global
Let’s not get too smug – it’s happening here too.
https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/264473

23. Or we could use sticks?
https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/murdoch-us-great-expectations-for-researchers/
http://www.nteu.org.au/article/Academic-Career-Framework-Change-Management-NTEU-
Concerns-21645
Union response:

24. Problem: concentrated market
Vertical integration resulting from Elsevier’s acquisitions, from Alejandro Posada and George Chen, (2017) Rent
Seeking and Financialization strategies of the Academic Publishing Industry - Publishers are increasingly in
control of scholarly infrastructure and why we should care- A Case Study of Elsevier
http://knowledgegap.org/index.php/sub-projects/rent-seeking-and-financialization-of-the-academic-publishing-
industry/preliminary-findings/
https://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-
topic/industry-news/industry-
deals/article/87120-clarivate-purchase-of-
proquest-extended.html

25. Is the is outcome we are looking for?
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/open-access-deals-shift-scholars-towards-bigpublishers
Since these deals, the
proportion of chemistry papers
from Germany-based authors
appearing in the publishers’
journals shot up by more than
5 percentage points to over
a third.
If this change left just two or
three mega-publishers
controlling the
market, said Professor
Haucap, these giants would
have “tremendous market
power to squeeze money out
of libraries and science
organisations” in future open
access deals

26. If these are (some of) the problems:
• Hyperauthorship
• Gaming peer review
• Poor science
• Risk adverse research
• Attrition of research talent pool
What is the solution?
• Focus on narrow successes
• Publishing in a limited market
• Obsession with rankings
• Reduced negotiation capacity
• Focus on ‘stars’ rather than
collaboration

27. The solution: Open Research
Data gathering
Analysis
Writing
Publishing
Dissemination
Reuse
Assessment
Data gathering
Analysis
Writing
Publishing
Dissemination
Reuse
Assessment
Distribute dissemination across the
research lifecycle and reward it
From this:
To this:

28. Open Access is only part of the Open
solution
https://www.mysciencework.com/omniscience/open-science-open-access-far-apart

29. Making your work open access

30. Openness is different in different
disciplines
Comic by XKCD - https://xkcd.com/435/

31. This requires complex big thinking
This runs across
multiple areas of
the university
that might not
normally work
together.
https://t.co/PVwr33o3YX?amp=1

32. Research Culture is a big focus
https://royalsociety.org/topics-
policy/projects/research-culture/
https://wellcome.org/what-we-do/our-
work/research-culture
https://www.nwo.nl/en/position-paper-
room-everyones-talent

33. Six years ago, the UK was only
starting
• “We can’t tell our researchers what to do”
• “On what $%^&ing legal basis are they telling me I have to
share my data?”
• “Are you saying we have to back-up our laptops?”
• “But XX university is unique, it’s not like other universities”
• “This is $%^&ing bull$*#@!”

34. And look at it now
https://osc.cam.ac.uk/open-research/open-
research-position-statement
http://www.exeter.ac.uk/research/openresearch/about/explai
ned/
https://www.reading.ac.uk/research/re
search-environment/open-
research.aspx
https://wellcomeopenresearch.org/

35. So where is Australia up to on this?

36. We are ‘lagging’
https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/australian-institutions-
lag-behind-on-open-access-adoption
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2021.08.20.457045v2

37. But ’open’ is increasingly on the
Australian agenda
https://campusmorningmail.com.au/news/chief-
scientist-gets-the-nod-on-open-access/
https://www.fair-access.net.au/fair-statement
https://www.science.org.au/supporting-
science/science-policy-and-
analysis/reports-and-
publications/advancing-data-intensive-
research-australia

38. ARC hit international news – for the
wrong reasons
https://campusmorningmail.com.au
/news/arcs-preprint-misstep-over-
decra-grant-applications/
https://www.theguardian.com/educ
ation/2021/aug/20/devastating-
career-event-scientists-caught-out-
by-change-to-australian-research-
council-fine-print
https://www.nature.com/articl
es/d41586-021-02318-8
https://www.chemistryworld.com/news/a
ustralian-research-councils-ban-on-
preprints-in-grants-prompts-
outcry/4014271.article
https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/heartbreak-
research-careers-ruined-australian-rule-tweak

39. But mistakes help open discussions
20 August
https://twitter.com/MissEmilieLib/
status/1428521731962990595
23 August
https://campusmorningmail.com.au/ne
ws/arcs-preprint-misstep-over-decra-
grant-applications/
CMM article quoted this
Tweet: 25 October https://www.natureindex.com/news-
blog/blurred-line-responsibility-between-research-
offices-libraries
Combination leads
to this article:

40. (Some) pushback on rankings

41. Assessment conversations are starting here
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_
id=3772437
https://oaaustralasia.org/events/oa-week-2021/

42. Groundswell of activity
https://www.anzopenresearch.org
https://aimos.community/
http://www.aus-rn.org/

43. Further reading & information
Keynote - "Is the tail wagging the dog? Perversity in academic rewards” COASP 2017, 9th
Conference on Open Access Scholarly Publishing held in Lisbon, Portugal on 20-21 September 2017
• Slides - https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/267263
• Video - http://coaspvideos.org/2016/videos/play/1401
https://unlockingresearch-blog.lib.cam.ac.uk/?p=713

44. Thank you!
Dr Danny Kingsley
danny.kingsley@flinders.edu.au
@dannykay68