As we often spend our days communicating in our various self-constructed echo chambers I wondered if people here in the Open Café were aware of these recent news items from Europe and what your perspectives were on them. It would be good to get a broader take on the evolving situation in European policy regarding the publishing system. These moves are celebrated in the circles in which I operate but know that there are many more stakeholders in the operating environment who have views. And we need to communicate beyond our own particular spheres of influence for the benefit of scholarly communications and global knowledge.
At the weekend, the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research (MESR) established a multi-year partnership with OpenAlex as it, "...wishes to contribute to the emergence of solid alternative proposals to proprietary environments to promote transparency and open access to knowledge."
This follows Sorbonne Université's cancelling their Web of Science subscription and CNRS (French National Centre for Scientific Research) moving on from Scopus. All part of French institutions turning to "open and sustainable solutions" (solutions ouvertes et durables) as part of a wider move away from subscriptions.
Last week the European University Association (the EUA has 850 members in 49 countries) revised its strategy part way through its operating term in response to "universities operating in an extremely dynamic and uncertain landscape." A key aspect of this revised strategy surrounds the open science agenda specifically in regard to scholarly publishing.
As part of their conference in April they're holding a "Road Towards Diamond Open Access" workshop to explore "...the potential of institutional publication activities – as a key leverage point for changing the entire academic publishing ecosystem."
While these are individual actions there seems to be a shift in a small space of time. How do you view these events from your own perspective?
Mark
Links for reference:
Sorbonne & WoS: https://www.sorbonne-universite.fr/en/news/sorbonne-university-unsubscribes-web-science
CNRS & Scopus: https://www.cnrs.fr/en/cnrsinfo/cnrs-has-unsubscribed-scopus-publications-database
EUA Workshop: https://eua.eu/events/305-the-road-towards-diamond-open-access.html?utm_source=linkedin&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=social-linkedin-22-01-2024
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