Open access and academic imperialism

Abstract

Recently, major scientific funding bodies in several European countries agreed to mandate that researchers they fund (approximately €7.6 billion annually) publish their results in open-access journals, intending to penalize authors who publish in journals that use a paywall for some or all of their articles (Enserink 2018).We think this policy is a mistake.Labels like OA and hybrid include a range of publishing models.Open Science is a wonderful ideal, the greatness of which sometimes seems to prevent discussion of its nuances, unintended consequences, trade-offs, and perverse incentives.Despite its lofty ideal, the European initiative is a blunt instrument that may significantly damage scientific knowledge exchange and silence researchers who are not funded by these institutions and who cannot afford to pay.

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