Open access and academic freedom

The power of funding alone should not be enough to override academic freedom, nor does open access automatically skew the world of scholarship, writes Curt Rice for the Guardian.

The Norwegian government recently wrote about open access publishing as a potential threat to academic freedom: "All research that is publicly financed should be openly accessible. This principle, however, must not hinder the academic freedom researchers enjoy to choose their preferred channels of publication."

How could academic freedom be impeded by a requirement to publish in open access journals? Doesn't it seem just a bit too luxurious to turn this principle into something about the business models of journals? Maybe. But experts writing about academic freedom recently asserted a right "to decide how publication shall happen". This, I think, is where academic freedom and open access policies may collide.
Full report on the Guardian site