Beyond open access: the changing culture of producing and disseminating scientific knowledge

This is an extended abstract for the workshop "Beyond Open Access - The Changing Culture of Producing and Disseminating Scientific Knowledge", organized by the Open Knowledge Foundation Finland Open Science Working Group at the Academic Mindtrek Conference, 24 September 2015. The workshop organizers felt that the traditional model for disseminating scientific knowledge, through pay-walled peer-reviewed journal articles, has become both inefficient and unfair, and that the Open Access to publishing movement solves only part of the problem. The workshop took the four main functions of the academic article as a starting point for the discussion; a) dissemination of scientific knowledge, b) a forum for academic discussion, c) maintaining and monitoring the quality of research and d) determining academic merit. The aim was to reflect on alternative ways of meeting those functions, such that would support the principles of open science (transparency, accessibility, integrity). These alternatives included open research processes, altmetrics and open peer review. The effects of open practices on research integrity were also discussed. Recordings of the workshop presentations are available for viewing at bit.ly/beyond-open-access.