[BOAI] Robin Osborne on the state of Open Access: Where are we, what still needs to be done?

[Richard Poynder]

A new Q&A in a series exploring the current state of Open Access has been
published. This one is with Robin Osborne, Professor of Ancient History at
the University of Cambridge, and a Fellow of the British Academy.

 

Earlier this year Osborne published an essay questioning one of the basic
premises of the OA movement - that research funded by the taxpayer should be
freely available to all. To claim as much, he said, was "a gross
misunderstanding" of the nature of academic research and of scholarly
publication. Yet this was the premise of the UK government-commissioned
Finch Report, this was the conclusion of the UK government when it accepted
the Finch Report's recommendations, and this was the assumption of Research
Councils UK (RCUK) when it subsequently introduced a new OA policy.

 

Osborne's essay met with considerable hostility from OA advocates, who
complained that it was elitist, that it was insular and arrogant, and that
it was dim-witted. Doubtless Osborne could have been more judicious in his
choice of language when challenging the OA movement. But then so could his
critics when responding to him.

 

Be that as it may, in conducting the Q&A with Osborne it seemed to me that
three key questions arise from his intervention in the OA debate. First, of
course, is whether the arguments he uses are valid. Second, we might want to
ask how representative his views are. Third, we might wonder how Humanities
and Social Science (HSS) researchers (and their societies) should respond to
the growing demands that they make their research OA, particularly since OA
policies are invariably based on the habits and practices of scientists.

 

The Q&A can be read here:
http://poynder.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/robin-osborne-on-state-of-open-access.
html

 

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