A Nature editor contacted me in November, asking if I’d like to write a Comment about the upcoming NSF policy change in Biosketch instructions. It sounded like a great chance to talk about the value of alternative research products with a wide audience, so I agreed. The comment was published yesterday and is now available here:
Piwowar H. (2013). Value all research products, Nature, 493 (7431) 159-159. DOI: 10.1038/493159a
Because of Nature’s policies about copyright assignments for Comments, the comment is not open access and it is behind a paywall. Arg. That said, I requested that it be one of their “free” articles and they agreed, so it will be freely available at the above link for a week or two. I will post the text up on my website as soon as I am able, 6 months from now.
Working on a blog post about the process behind the scenes, because it was certainly unlike anything else I’ve published to date!
Questions about the piece, or thoughts or opinions? Welcome below, or on twitter to @researchremix.
Sure, it’s Nature, but if you don’t like their copyright policy, have you considered keeping your copyright and publishing your comment somewhere else?
Comment by bencomp — January 10, 2013 @ 1:16 pm
Yup, I consider it all the time, and I do it, too :) Almost all of my research is published in OA journals and I’m a big advocate of open access and open data. In this case, I wouldn’t have written this article if Nature didn’t invite me to do it, just wasn’t on my todo list. I decided it was worth the tradeoff to sign away copyright in this case of “editorial content”, to reach what is often a traditional audience.
Comment by Heather Piwowar — January 10, 2013 @ 1:35 pm