By Charlotte Wien & Bertil F. Dorch
The Danish Research and Education Libraries pay each year, in the nearly 40.000.000 Euro to what one could call a “para-academic industry” for access to the scientific literature and for data on research production. Our mother institutions – the universities – probably pays even more to these companies: First, they pay the salaries and operating expenses for the researchers enabling them to produce scientific literature, which they then give free of charge to the scientific publishers. Then the universities pay the researchers to do peer review of and edit each other’s articles. All this money was better spent if they were used to educate and hire more researchers and/or as more funds to the free research councils. But changing this would require a shift of paradigm in the academic world. A shift of paradigm could use the Open Science Movement as leverage for the changes but would also require that the current accreditation system are changed, so that Danish researchers in the future will be rewarded for their contributions to society. Finally, the current New Public Management regime must be replaced so that researchers again get the freedom to do what they are supposed to do: Teaching and research. [In danish]
Link to original newspapers article in Politiken (subscription required)
A shift of paradigm much needed in Academia
Published