Jean-Sébastien Caux is Professor in theoretical condensed matter physics at the University of Amsterdam. A Canadian citizen, he obtained his PhD in Oxford, was postdoctoral Fellow in All Souls, and moved to the Netherlands in 2003. Besides his research activities, he is actively involved in the reform of scientific publishing. He is the founder, implementer and current chairman of open access publication portal SciPost. Jean-Sébastien reflects on the current state of play of the scientific publishing landscape and copyright’s role. He talks about the open access movement and the major hurdles or speed bumps ahead. Jean-Sébastien unravels how his personal frustrations led to the creation of SciPost and discusses the effort’s long term sustainability. He makes a plea to change the institutional mindset and move towards Diamond Open Access. Jean-Sébastien calls for academic rebellion and gives a word of warning about the next can of worms: publishers’ surveillance operations. Finally, he concludes by encouraging his fellow academics to educate themselves about copyright and the academic publishing machine.
Do you prefer watching our passionate interviewees talking about the 21st-century walls blocking access to culture? Then check out the vlog below.
Video highlights with timestamps:
00:00 Intro
01:39 The current state of play of the scientific publishing landscape and copyright’s role
06:18 The open access movement and the major hurdles or speed bumps ahead
13:05 The story behind the SciPost publishing infrastructure
20:10 Ensuring SciPost’s long term sustainability
26:56 A plea to change the institutional mindset and move towards Diamond Open Access
32:50 Calling for academic rebellion and a word of warning about the next can of worms: publishers’ surveillance operations
38:47 Hitting the ‘Wall’
41:15 Final thoughts
