I anticipate resuming regular weekly DigitalKoans posts on 9/1/2020. In the meantime, irregular postings may occur.
I hope that you and your family will remain safe during the COVID-19 crisis.
I have followed this crisis closely, and I think the importance of open access—especially preprints—has been proven by it. Preprints from China and other countries have helped medical staff around the world to quickly understand the virus. Although the penetration of "Gold" open access journals in the field of medicine has been far from ideal, those Gold journals that do exist have assisted researchers worldwide in their efforts to fight the virus. Moreover, major publishers have temporarily dropped paywalls for works they consider relevant.
From my perspective, the OA movement began in the late 1980's. It has been a protracted struggle against very long odds that owes much to a number of leaders such as Stevan Harnad, Peter Suber, and John Willinsky. While much remains to be done, everyone who has contributed to the movement should be very proud of what they have accomplished to date.
Digital Curation and Digital Preservation Works | Open Access Works | Digital Scholarship | Digital Scholarship Sitemap | A Look Back at 30 Years as an Open Access Publisher
