The Cost of Open Access

The cost of Academic publishing (source: http://whyopenresearch.org/costs.html#)

In this blog post, I revisit the open-access blog post, which was published earlier, but with a new perspective. The earlier post highlights open access to a journal and its importance in research. Here, let us peer into the “devil” and “angel” that is an open access publishing and how it limits the growth of science in general. I should include this watermarked caution, that my views may be biased, but is worth sharing.

The average cost of publishing a publication in an open-access publication is about US$2,500. Open access publishing for all its “good” has done some significant “bad”, which cannot be overlooked. Why is that my stance? A quote from Noorden (2013) states that “The costs of research publishing can be much lower than people think.” If this is the case, why is this not implemented? I do not have any direct answers to this question, but let us consider a few things highlighted in Noorden (2013):

1) The cost of open access as a function of impact factor. The cost of publishing in a journal increases with the impact factor of the journal and as the impact factor increases, the cost of publishing also increases. Why does the cost of publishing an open-access publication suddenly increase when the journal impacts factor increases? Does the cost of materials related to the publishing of articles increase with the impact factor?

2) Rejection is costly. The more desk rejection a journal gives, the higher the cost of publishing in the journal. This is a typical demand-and-supply business model, that has been successfully adopted by publishing organizations. This means researchers pay more money simply for the probability of not being rejected (living as the 1%).

What are the impacts for this high cost of publishing?

A simple but devastating cost to researchers is less visibility and citations. Studies have shown that women and authors from outside North America and Europe were underrepresented in the author, peer reviewer, and citation pool. While this may not be due to the high cost of open access publications, it is certainly a big part. For the entire research community, it may result in the inability to view and read journals, which creates a void in knowledge. Virginia Tech. library for example is not subscribed to Elsevier journals, there are countless papers I have been unable to access.

I should stress that my opinion does not call for the overhaul of the publishing industry or its total removal, but the need for regularization. As researchers, we understand the need for improvements and refinements of existing models. In fact, this is why research still exists today, so if the current system is already strained and is unsupported by the majority of researchers (it is!), why not refine the current model of publishing in open access journals?

References

Noorden, R. V. (2013). Open access: The true cost of science publishing. Nature, 495, 426–429, (2013).

Technology and Innovation in Higher Education – Blockchain technology

Usability of blockchain in higher education.

Arguably one of the most innovative technology over the last decade is blockchain technology. While this technology is not fully understood, scaled, or adopted by many sectors. Many researchers, particularly in computer science believe it is the next step in computer evolution. In this article by Harthy et al. (2019) (link here), they argue for the potential adoption of blockchain technology in higher education.

The figure above provides a summary of some of the utilities of blockchain technology in higher education. Two of the most important are:

1. Transaction: The ability to directly transfer with each other without the need for mediating third parties.

2. Securing student records: Blockchain offers the opportunity to initiate, validate, record, and distribute students’ records. According to the study, the MIT Media Lab has been using Blockers for issuing digital certificates since 2015.

Additionally, there are other utilities such as data storage, and online education, which are already paired with blockchain technology in other industries. Recently, there have been discussions around virtual reality software and the impact it may have on higher education, particularly the way faculty teach, collaborate, and students learn.

Future of the University – Adaptation in Higher Education

Higher education leadership (Photo credits: https://changinghighered.com/higher-ed-change-leadership-the-new-normal/)

In this blog post, I explore “the” one thing that should change in higher education. The use of “the” in the preceding sentence should give a sense of my personal believe that a holistic transformation of the higher education system involves a change of just one thing.

Ironically, this one thing is the ability of higher education to change; to adapt to new conditions, accept these conditions, and change. The article cited in the illustration above highlighted one important lesson, about the pandemic. The fast-paced and uniform response of universities to the Covid-19 pandemic highlights the ability of higher education if they really wanted to bring about real reform in diversity and inclusion, social wellbeing of students and faculty, safety, etc. It is often the case to hear responses such as “we do not have the power to change this”, “this is outside the scope of what we can mandate”. These responses are often default response meant to serve one purpose; preserve the bottom line: profits. While profit making is not bad in itself, the exaltation of profits over the welfare of employees and students can only result in a strained higher education system.

Conclusively, I would like to end with this quote from the former prime minister of the United Kingdom; Winston Churchill “To improve is to change; to be perfect is to change often.” I think the quote needs no interpretation as it relates to the future of high education.