Many sceptical about Dekker’s goals

A discussion meeting was held at Library & Archive, University of Twente (UT) on 18 February 2015.

Following an introduction by Franciska de Jong, professor of Language Technology at the UT, Jos Engelen (NWO) outlined his views on the need for open access, saying that it was inevitable. Detlef Lohse, professor of Physics of Fluids (UT), gave a critical appraisal of the commercial interests that major publishers had in the golden road to open access (‘public money for private wealth’). He then led a panel discussion with the two above speakers and three more professors from the UT.

Discussion starters from the panel sparked an interesting and animated debate, both within the panel and with the audience. Although nobody doubts the importance of open access, many are sceptical about the feasibility of the aims recently announced by State Secretary Dekker. Or as panel member and professor of Political Science Kees Aarts put it: 'We are underestimating the resistance of publishers to changing the publishing model and overestimating the willingness of researchers to actually opt for open access'.