As numerous posts on this blog have emphasised, the underlying idea of open access (OA) – allowing anyone to read and share published academic research for free – is great in principle, but in practice has failed in important ways. That’s because traditional academic publishers have subverted the open access model to such an extent that the costs for research institutions of publishing in […]

#CancerResearchUK will stop paying #APCs for funded researchers.
https://news.cancerresearchuk.org/2026/04/01/why-we-wont-be-funding-open-access-publishing-any-more/

PS. So far, so good. There are strong reasons to move away from APCs. For a summary, see Recommendation 3 of the Budapest Open Access Initiative 20th anniversary statement in 2022. (Disclosure: I was the lead author.)
https://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/boai20/#rec-3

Unfortunately the Cancer Research UK announcement is marred by several false assertions and assumptions about #OpenAccess.

* Its narrow decision is to stop funding APCs, but its headline is that it will stop funding OA publishing as such. It leaves the distinct false impression that all OA journals charge APCs.

* Deep in the text it says that OA "hasn't worked. At least not in its current form." That looks like a recognition that not all OA depends on APCs. But it isn't explicit and didn't prevent careless language elsewhere in the statement.

* It never acknowledges that no-APC OA (#DiamondOA) journals exist, let alone that they constitute the majority of OA journals.

* It does acknowledge the existence of no-APC OA through repositories, or #GreenOA. But it falsely suggests that green OA must be embargoed. Just to give one notable set of counter-examples, all the federal OA policies in the US require unembargoed green OA.

#ScholComm

Big news from #arXiv:
https://jobs.chronicle.com/job/37961678/chief-executive-officer

1. It's becoming an independent #nonprofit organization.
2. It's leaving #CornellU.
3. It's hiring a CEO, with a salary in the range of $300k.

#GreenOA #OpenAccess #Preprints #ScholComm

Watching with interest.

"COAR Notify and the Launch of a Publish, Review, Curate Alliance."
https://coar-repositories.org/news-updates/coar-notify-and-the-launch-of-a-publish-review-curate-alliance/

PS: I'm a big fan of #COAR, #COARNotify, #PRC, #Preprints, and taking full advantage of #OpenAccess #Repositories.

#GreenOA #OpenPeerReview #ScholComm

🆔 Last week, the final Halathon of 2025 took place, with the second session held at the INPHYNI laboratory of Université Côte d’Azur. This second session, following the Halathon in November, once again made it possible to work on the quality of researcher profiles in order to improve the visibility of scientific outputs. The agenda therefore included creating accounts and idHALs, merging accounts (subsequently carried out by the CCSD - Centre for Direct Scientific Communication), as well as work on other identifiers, notably ORCid, arXiv, and IdRef.

The Halathons will resume in January! 📅

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🆔 La semaine dernière s'est tenu le dernier Halathon de 2025, avec la deuxième session organisée au laboratoire INPHYNI d'Université Côte d'Azur. Cette seconde intervention après le halathon de novembre a permis à nouveau de travailler sur la qualité des profils chercheurs afin d'améliorer la visibilité des productions scientifiques. Au menu donc : création de compte et d'idHAL, fusions de comptes (réalisées ensuite par le CCSD - Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe), mais aussi travaux sur d'autres identifiants, notamment ORCID, arXiv et IdRef !

Les halathons reprendront en janvier ! 📅

#openscience #greenOA #digitalid #orcid #arxiv #HAL