OpenFest 2023 Online Symposium Keynote 1 - Martin Paul Eve, Against Austerity

Keynote address from the OpenFest 2023 online symposium 'New Perspectives on Open Research', which took place on 7 September 2023.

OpenFest 2023 Online Symposium Keynote 1 - Martin Paul Eve, Against Austerity

Abstract:

Arguments for open access are usually split along two axes: the educational and the financial. On the former, it is easy to see that the progress of science and scholarship is advanced by easy, free access to research. A more equitable system of educational access benefits everyone. However, on the second front, it is also argued that open access should be less expensive for libraries, signalling the end of the serials crisis. In this talk, using data from 7 million article records, I examine the publishing practices of scholarly publishers at different levels of revenue, clearly showing that professional publishers, with high levels of revenue, consistently perform better at tasks such as digital preservation. While remaining committed to not-for-profit and mission-driven solutions, I argue that there are more important challenges for open access publishing than merely reducing costs.

Martin Paul Eve is the principal R&D developer at Crossref and the Professor of Literature, Technology and Publishing at the University of London's Birkbeck College. He is well known for his work in open-access policy circles, having founded the Open Library of Humanities, as well as authoring nine books, all openly accessible, including Open Access and the Humanities: Contexts, Controversies and the Future. In 2018, Martin was awarded the KU Leuven Medal of Honour in the Humanities and Social Sciences; in 2019, he received the Philip Leverhulme Prize for Literary Studies; and, in 2021, Martin was named by the Shaw Trust as one of the 100 most influential disabled people in the UK.