Thread by @suzannezeedyk

A story & a THREAD on ACEs & Power.
The theme of power was central to recent discussns between @_LisaCherry & myself on t #ACEDebate. I had a moment ths week that illustrates what I meant - especlly about academic power. I think we haven't considered these barriers nearly enough.

2. The story begins whn a colleague - who holds a senior post at a major childrn's charity - dropped me an email to ask if I had access to a newly publshed paper on ACES. Publishd in Brit Jnl of Social Work @BJofSW by very well regarded John Devaney & co. academic.oup.com/bjsw/advance-a…

3. If the public clicks on the link to t paper, they will find what my colleague did. As is entirely normal w/ journals, you have to have a subscription. Or your university has to have a subscription. Otherwise, you will need to pay £29.00 to read the article, limited to 24 hrs.

4. Most people don't have budgets of £29.00 for a single article. Even if they did, many 'ordinary people' (non-academics) have no real idea what a scientific journal is. They don't know where or why to look for them. So...

5. So...a tremendous amount of knowledge & dscssn abt ACEs stays within t academic community. A power divide occurs. Some people (acadmcs) hv access to knowledge that other people don't. Such exclusion is common,unseen. Often it won't matter. Until t issue crosses to the public.

6. Story continues:
Did I have access to the article? Nope, I don't have a subscription to the journal. But I have a friend who does.... I pop them an email. Hey, presto! They get me the paper. In other words, I have a network to power. Most 'ordinary folk'? They don't.

7. I send the article to my colleague who originally asked for it. I think: WHY are they dependent on ME to hv access to this information??? How does this help t children they serve? WHY hv I now read a helpful &interestng article that most of t public will never know exists?

8. No one has done anythng out of t ordinary or untoward - excpt maybe me, who sent on t article and is willing to say that aloud on social media to make my point. Ths is just how t journl systm works. T high jrnl prices mean ppl who cn afford it share in t knowldge. Others, not.

9. Tangent: Behind the scenes, unknown to most of the public, the issue about journal prices is a big deal for universities. Journals have to make their money somehow, but the amounts involved are under scrutiny. Here's a piece that describes that: theatlantic.com/science/archiv…

10. Yes, sometimes the public can get free access to an article. Often that is for a limited time only. The journl offered that as a 'gift' to t public. They retain t power to decide when that gift is to be rescinded. (It might also be open-access, but that's even less common.)

11. So, basically, in ths thread I hv simply tried to explain a bit about how academic publishng works. The public doesn't know a lot abt that. They depend on people like me (who was a journal editor) to explain how it works. This lack of knowledge is part of how power operates.

12. Individual academics don't make any money off of an article they publish. Publication is considered part of thr job. It is part of what they are paid (by taxpayers) to do. What they receive is professional esteem & t joy that goes with writing about important topics.

13. John Devaney & co's paper, which prompted ths thread, is certainly a valuable one. He is reflecting on t history of ACEs research, abt distinctions betwn trauma & adversity, abt t impact of age at which trauma occurs. It's just that...most people won't get to read it.

14. Since the original ACEs publication in 1998, there have been at least 4300 publications, according to this 2019 @TheLancet article by @markabellis . (It is open-access, so anyone can read it. Most of the articles they surveyed won't be.) thelancet.com/journals/lanpu…

15. Tangent: Open-access means more people have access to articles. So who pay for it, then? Often it is the research team or their grant-funder, when fees are framed this way. The @royalsociety has a discussion of that here: royalsociety.org/journals/libra…

16. So, after all that arcane info that some people will be bored by, my aim in writng ths thread is 3-fold.
First, I want to highlight one way in which power operates in t ACES debate. Not everybody gets to take part equally. Ths matters lots whn a topic reaches t grassroots.

17. Second, I wanted to ask academics espclly to be more sensitive & alert to ths divide. You hold more power here. Please remember that if you publish an article, most people can't read it. When you say, 'Everybody knows that...', that doesn't include every everybody. Thank you.

18. This is not a problem individual academics can solve. It is a system problem. It is about who controls knowledge. But each of us need to recognise when we have access to power that others don't. We need to recognise our own privilege. This is one dynamic in the #ACEsDebate.

19. Finally, I wanted to highlight all this because I am sometimes concerned by divisions I hear whispered over. This is a reflection of this power dynamic. This is why attentn to lived experience matters so much in t ACES movement. What counts as knowledge? Whose voice counts?

20/end. I hope ths thread is helpful. I do think we need to reflect more on power dynamics in t #ACEsDebate. We all know they are thr, but often aren't discussd explicitly. I am willng to put my head above t parapet & give it a go. Thank you to everyone workng for a better world.

@JDev65 Thank you for a thoughtful & valuable paper on ACES