The hottest Open Access Substack posts right now

For-profit scientific publishers extract large sums from publicly funded research by paywalling papers and charging institutions and authors to publish or read work the public already paid for.
Many ‘open access’ rules let publishers just shift costs onto authors through huge article-processing fees, so the profit-skimming continues unless for-profit publishers are cut out entirely.
This is a collective-action problem that only governments and big funders can solve; banning for-profit journals from handling grant-funded work would save money and create room for nonprofit, more honest publishing models.

Lawmakers barred NIH and other agencies from changing how negotiated indirect cost rates are calculated or pursuing rulemaking to alter the 2017 approach, while asking agencies to discuss transparency improvements and consider models like FAIR.
The bill encourages expanding person-focused grants (like R35/MIRA) and boosting support for early-career researchers, but it rejected a House proposal for $100M in replication funding and only asks NIH to encourage and brief the committee on replication efforts.
Committees directed NIH to tackle high article-processing charges, promote alternatives to animal research, allow international subawards for clinical trials, and reduce administrative burden, while saying any major NIH restructuring must follow statutory notice rules.

A new YouTube channel called The Library of Alexandria Ultima - Video Archive will compile and organize videos relevant to research interests, mostly curating existing material rather than producing original content.
The channel is intended to remain ad-free, and supporters can donate via Buy Me a Coffee to help sustain the project.
Viewers are invited to suggest content, subscribe, and like videos, and new curated videos will be added gradually.

Sydney Brenner and his colleagues made significant contributions to biology, including establishing the genetic code and using Caenorhabditis elegans as a model organism.
Young scientists face challenges in today's academic environment, such as pressure to publish in high-impact journals and the need for funding for risky, innovative research.
There is a growing movement towards open access publishing and a reevaluation of the metrics used to judge research quality in academia.

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SSRN, a social science paper repository, is being acquired by Elsevier, a legacy publisher, which may cause concerns about potential changes to SSRN's open-access policies.
Academic platforms like SSRN provide valuable services, but they also need financial support to sustain their operations, often leading to acquisitions by larger entities.
The acquisition of SSRN by Elsevier reflects the balance between providing accessible research platforms and the necessity for financial sustainability in the academic publishing ecosystem.