Presenter
Christopher Jackson, Ph.D.,
Statoil Professor of Basin Analysis
Imperial College, Kensington, London
Abstract
Scholarly publishing is going through some painful changes, with many of the stakeholders having competing interests. Academics are one of the key stakeholders, with their research typically communicated via journals, and their progress often inextricably linked to performance metrics such as Journal Impact Factors (JIFs). Change happens quickly; this is problematic when, at least historically, academics have been resistant to change. So, how do academics view and react to these changes, and what role do they play in shaping the future of scholarly publishing? In this talk I will provide a very personal perspective on some of these issues, highlighting what I view as some of the key challenges to ensuring academics engage in the related debates. I will describe how I have attempted to be proactive and to directly engage in the debate, by co-founding ‘EarthArXiv’, a preprint server for Earth Science, comparable to ArXiv, bioRxiv and paleorXiv. Although invigorating and informative, this experience has not provided me with any solutions to the challenges outlined above, but I will conclude by suggesting some potential ways in which the ‘Open Science’ and related messages may be better communicated to academics.
