Open Science: What does it mean for academic researchers?

• In Event: Open Science: How to Unlock Equitable Access to Research

Proposal

While open science and open access enables the results of scholarly research to be disseminated more rapidly and widely, they also potentially affect academic work in a variety of ways. The development of open science is challenging the traditional peer-review model of assessment of scholarly research, a development that has implications for decisions related to career progression and recognition of academic researchers. Some models of open access shift publication costs onto individual researchers, and threaten to disrupt the publishing activities of scholarly societies. Drawing upon the experience of Canada, this presentation examines how academic staff associations and trade unions are responding to these challenges while championing the principle of open access. Examples include: new contract language that recognizes open science and open access publications as scholarly work to be considered in tenure and promotion assessments; the development of incentives and rewards to encourage academic researchers to make their scholarly work openly available; and compensation for additional time required to supply data and text to open repositories.

Author

• David Robinson, Canadian Association of University Teachers