Research is born free and everywhere is in chains
How the evolution of open access can contribute to developing a more democratic approach for science
Abstract
Watch the VIDEO.
The open access movement has come a long way since its origins at the end of the 1990s but we still haven’t achieved the tipping point to make the open access approach, the normal approach. Why are initiatives such as Plan S needed and why did the World Health Organization feel it necessary to join?
This talk will draw on experiences at Wellcome Trust and WHO, implementing the first open access policy for a European Research funder, creating Europe PubMed Central and developing a policy that works for a United Nations agency. Robert will outline why achieving open access requires addressing barriers across political, technical and cultural barriers – with perhaps the culture of research assessment and reward needing the biggest change if we are to truly democratise science so that the people who pay for the research, the taxpayers, can access, read and use the research.
Copyright (c) 2019 Robert Fraser Terry

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).