Science Atlantic Sessions for All entered the new year on Jan. 19 with an informative session led by Dr. Maria Pawlowska on some of the misconceptions about open access. Maria is an expert in open science, and is working with Research Nova Scotia to develop the first provincial open science policy in Canada.
As background, Maria explained that open access is one facet of open science, a movement that values transparency and easy connection both within the scientific community and with the general public. Open access is the belief that all people should have access to the same knowledge. The thought is that if all people have access to this knowledge, solutions to major global problems could be reached much more quickly.
Maria started by debunking the idea that open access is dominated by predatory journals and extremely high processing charges. Maria explained that in reality, there are many trustworthy open access journals that allow researchers to publish their papers free of charge.
In particular, Maria referred to non-commercial open access, more commonly known as diamond open access, as a method of publishing that is completely free for both researchers and readers. Diamond open access was once the only form of open access on the Internet. It was only when for-profit publishers realized that they could generate profit from open access that article processing charges became the norm.
After Maria’s talk, faculty and researchers from several post secondary institutions and government labs participated in an open discussion. The relaxed environment allowed for fantastic in-depth exploration of how participants could make use of diamond journals and help shift attitudes towards open access. Maria recommended referring to the Directory of Open Access Journals and noted that many recognizable institutions own diamond open access journals and that scam journals can be avoided by sticking to familiar names.
When asked what she thinks are the most important facts to know about open science, Maria stressed that the movement includes more than open access and open data. For example, it also involves incorporating Indigenous knowledge into how research is conducted. Open science is, at its core, about connecting science with more people, and there are many ways to achieve this goal.
Thank you to Maria and our attendees for an informed and lively discussion!
Most Canadian post-secondary institutions host publicly accessible online repositories to share research by their faculty and students. To find links to the repositories of Science Atlantic member institutions, please check the Member Institutions information page.