Have you heard the expression “small fish in a big pond”? I have an updated version. How about, “plankton in an ocean”? That’s me. I am the plankton, spending the weekend with CEOs of major corporations, editors in-chief, a couple Nobel prize winners, people advancing science and media in ways I can hardly comprehend… and Martha Stewart. That, in a nutshell (or an ocean, as the case may be) is Science Foo Camp, where I am currently sitting with mouth hanging open and ears open wide.
One of the major themes of this free-form gathering has been open access publishing. In a group discussion led by Bora Zivkovic of PLoS ONE, tempers flared (which made it even more fun than staring at science celebrities), and the many complications, pros and cons of open access were raised. Does the term “open access” refer to pre- or post-publication open access? Is it open, non-peer reviewed publication of articles or even complete lab notebooks, or access to reviewed, published articles free of charge? That aside, will open access publishing negatively affect the hiring potential of young faculty looking for tenure track positions or funding from organizations such as Wellcome Trust and the NIH?
What about intellectual property? How does one protect findings aired in a public forum? One attendee replied that you don’t, it doesn’t matter, it should all be free and open. As much as I personally admire this free love, Birkenstock/Woodstock approach to science and research, I do not believe it to be feasible at the moment. Science is run by money. In order to get money or funding, one must publish. The changes and minor revolutions in that need to occur in publishing before the concept of the science paper becomes obsolete are staggering. They are also occurring as we speak.
Small fish? No way – I was very excited to get to meet you in person.
The pleasure was all mine. I am happy I got the chance to meet you!
Concerning the question of intellectual property, I am guessing that you are referring to my comment. I was not saying that all research should be open and free – just that people who are interested in intellectual property protection should probably not do Open Notebook Science. And this is no different than in the traditional publication process. People who are interested in intellectual property should not publish manuscripts without filing a patent (at least a provisional US patent). This is an expensive route and completely unrealistic for most scientific research projects. Money is not the sole motivation of scientists. If that were the case who would study fields like archaeology and cosmology?
I wish that we had more time to discuss these issues during the session.
I think the IP issue didn’t get brought up enough, especially with the peer2patent and other IP types there. In many cases the flaws are not in intent, but in the system itself. That said, I think as a community, we know what the problems are. We should just focus on solutions rather than trying to go into what’s wrong in excruciating detail :)