Thread by @rschrobUK

Tuning in to hear the thoughts of @PrinSciAdvGoI on #scholcomm in India. Thread below. India has a huge role in shaping the future of English-language scientific publishing. Everyone working in #libraries #stmpublishing #openaccess should be paying attention to its priorities.

https://twitter.com/PrinSciAdvOff/status/1354366928035344388

Prof Raghavan: Fundamentally in a situation where information is becoming the source of polarised power. Knowledge and power have always gone together, and access to information means access to power. Today, those with access to the analysis of data wield disproportionate power.

Much of what we see in scientific publishing today is a relic of the printing press. Those who could print could collate knowledge and make it available, at great effort. The net result was that the printed copy was expensive.

Through technology we have changed the world in extraordinary ways. We have moved from trying to survive on this planet, to a situation where the future of the planet depends on us. We are no longer objects painted on the surface of the earth, but we wield the paintbrush.

Another sea change in the info industry – we have transcended the constraints of natural selection and evolution and gone into cultural evolution as the principle process of change. We see this in the structures of AI and their consequences on us = astrology with content

Scientific publishing is an enormous challenge. Because of the vestiges of print publishing, publishers have hung onto this in a manner that subscriptions dominate the landscape – costing hundreds of millions dollars a year in India.

This is not good for two reasons:
1.Despite enormous subscriptions, access is not available evenly across the scientific community
2.Access to all our citizens should be available, because the internet does not increase the cost

Publishers have tried to get around this, saying 'We will move to #openaccess but you should pay an exorbitant price. We have the best referees and a totem pole of value. If you want to publish in the places of highest value, you have to pay the highest amount.'

This is untenable in large economies such as India, with a requirement for a huge young demography to come up using the tools of science and technology. Both access to information, and the ability to access it without extortionate fees, needs to be addressed.

Fundamentally the solution that assumes that these structures are permanent and somehow we need to support them is not correct. But we need new structures when we remove them that still allow for the high quality of information, and assurance over that information.

If you are a citizen, a farmer or a patient going to see a doctor, you should have access to information of every kind, bilingual, in English and in your native language

As a researcher you should have the flexibility to disseminate this in a way which is reviewed well.
By clinging to structures from the time of Gutenburg we cannot solve this problem.