The pandemic and open access publishing

In this special issue, we are breaking from the tradition of having one or two book reviews. This has come about in part because books about open and online learning specific to the pandemic have not been published yet and in part because such books might not ever appear. The fundamental principles of open and online learning existed before the pandemic. The ways in which educators have adopted these principles, often moving from face-to-face instruction, rest in a pandemic-specific context for which the timetables of book publishing and the marketing of books are not well suited. As a Book Review Editor, one of my goals has been to promote open access publishing by regularly including such books among our reviews. Given how the Covid pandemic has temporarily closed physical libraries, coupled with reports in the popular press about the growth in research articles, this seemed the appropriate time to examine open access academic publishing. I had expected the pandemic to trigger an enlightenment towards more open access to research in the form of journals and books but found a more nuanced and complicated situation. Open access goes by different definitions and can include journals and ebooks which are open access for researchers and students because they are freely available at university online libraries. For researchers outside of university library systems, the pandemic brought about a temporary reprieve from having to subscribe to journals or pay for individual papers. During 2020, many traditional publishing houses temporarily opened their paywalls, giving ‘free access to research papers and data for scholars researching pandemic-related issues, and also for students seeking to pursue their studies online across a range of disciplines’ (Montgomery, 2021). Writing in the Times Higher Education in 2020, Jack Grove predicted that with scientific journals leading the way, ‘the unrestricted sharing of scientific papers during the coronavirus pandemic may have hastened the shift toward more open-access publishing, scientists believe, as several leading journals move to make content publicly available.’ This view was shared by many. Once the paywalls went back up, it was broadly assumed that open access journals and the open access articles found in hybrid journals, such as Open Learning, would benefit from an increased awareness of open access resources. This, coupled with the assumed surge in research articles being produced by scholars on break from face-to-face classrooms and campus life, signalled a new dawn for open-access research. However, the publishers I contacted painted a very different picture. Open Learning’s publisher Taylor and Francis had this to say on the issue of open access journals: ‘OA journals’ usage growth on Taylor & Francis Online has been strong and consistent since before the pandemic took effect and there is no obvious evidence that the pandemic has significantly accelerated or decelerated this ongoing growth.’ OPEN LEARNING: THE JOURNAL OF OPEN, DISTANCE AND E-LEARNING 2021, VOL. 36, NO. 3, 283–285 https://doi.org/10.1080/02680513.2021.1979951