Open Access and the Commons: The many faces of scholar-led publishing

Open access publishing has hugely expanded the available audiences for research outputs beyond academics to the general public. This has the potential to combat misinformation, promote new ideas and businesses, and produce a better-informed society. The principle that knowledge is for all is a good one. However, the present marketised system of gold open access has come under criticism for the way article processing charges stretch library budgets and exclude researchers in the global south or who are unaffiliated to institutions, as well as how it incentivises the speedy publication of large numbers of poor quality outputs over fewer high quality outputs to inflate large commercial publishers’ profit margins. One proposed solution to this problem is for academic publishing to re-orient toward scholar-led “diamond” open access publishing using the principle of the “commons” to ensure the control of the publishing process is held democratically by the scholarly community, and that both publishing and reading are free for all. 

This hybrid event can be attended either in-person or online. For in-person attendees, a light lunch will be provided.

Chair:

Dr S.M. Rodriguez, Assistant Professor of Gender, Rights and Human Rights at LSE Department of Gender Studies.

Panellists:

Dr Samuel A. Moore, Scholarly Communications Specialist at University of Cambridge, author of "Publishing Beyond the Market: Open Access, Care and the Commons".

Professor Caroline Edwards, Executive Director of the Open Library of the Humanities, Innovation and Commercialisation, and Professor of Contemporary Literature and Culture in School of Creative Arts, Culture, and Communication at Birkbeck University of London.

Professor Mercedes Bunz, Professor of Digital Culture and Society at KCL Department of Digital Humanities, member of the Interdisciplinary Network for the Critical Humanities Terra Critica.

Dr Andrea Pia, Associate Professor at LSE Department of Anthropology, founding member of the scholar-led editorial co-operative "Cooperate for Open" (C4O).