Ready for the future? A survey on open access with scientists from the French National Research Center (CNRS)
▻https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01399422/document
The French survey uncovers attitudes, needs and behaviours similar to other countries, except for OA publishing with APCs where French scientists appear more reluctant and hesitantthan their colleagues from other European countries. One explanation may be the fact that France globally spendsless for scientific information than other similar countries; also APCs may appear less affordable. However, these differences should not be over-interpreted. Since 2014, the situation has changed in France as well as in other European countries, and openaccess to scientific information is fast becoming the dominant model of academic communication.
Today, the debate is no longer on pros and cons of open access. In 2016 the French parliament will probably adopta new law (“Loi pour une République Numérique”) granting secondary exploitation rights to scientists, similar to German, Austrian andDutch legislation. Together with the other EU Member States, France is committed to Open Science and will continue to increase the availability of French research results. The challenge today is how to get there. For more than 15 years, France has developed an open access infrastructure with national operating agents, a large open repository (HAL) and public OA journal and book platforms especially in social sciences and humanities. This public infrastructure is now in competition with OA publishing and APCs mainly controlled by large corporate publishers.
One challenge is the control over dissemination, access and preservation of research results, and over innovation in the field of academic publishing. Another challenge is the exploitation of the growing volume of research results through content mining, and the control of these technologies and tools. Will the research community maintain (or regain) control overits data, overusage, impact, evaluation etc.? Who will add value to content, who will provide metrics forresearch output, fornetworks, experts, emerging topics etc.? Will the dysfunctional scientific information market survive, with its oligopolies, mergers and benefits? Should it?