When ECS launched the Free the Science initiative, the Society made a commitment to constructive, industry-wide disruption based on a simple tenet—research should be free for authors to publish and free for readers to access.

Already the initiative has had momentous impact.

Since ECS began offering open access as a publishing option in 2014, over 35% of its journal articles have been published open access. Over 90% of those articles were published at no cost to authors, thanks to the over $2.1 million in article processing charge credits the Society provided.

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Are you a young researcher just getting started? Do you work in an area where frequent job moves are required? Do you simply have a name more common than others, leading to confusion about authorship and difficulty in following your research efforts?

You need an ORCID iD.

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Schematic representation of the gravimetric experimental setup for atmospheric H2 evolution measurements.

By: Gerald Frankel, The Ohio State University

(Note: Gerald Frankel is the Corrosion Science and Technology technical editor for the Journal of The Electrochemical Society.)

I found this paper, Real-Time Monitoring of Atmospheric Magnesium Alloy Corrosion, fascinating and truly innovative. Sanna Virtanen describes a method to make sensitive real-time measurements of the atmospheric corrosion of Mg.

This paper is also the first in the new focus issue on advanced experimental methods in memory of Hugh Isaacs. As such, like the other papers that will appear in that issue, it is open access. Note that submissions to this focus issue are still open.

Clarivate Analytics has recently published its annual list of Highly Cited Researchers with the overarching declaration that “whether ‘Highly Cited’ or ‘Hot,’ these researchers are making a significant impact.”

Some of our most distinguished ECS members have been noted this year as the “world’s most influential scientific minds” often listed multiple times in the categories of physics, chemistry, and materials science.

Below, find a short list of those members of The Electrochemical Society whose research on electrochemistry and solid state science and technology is shaping the scientific discourse. Read the full article.

Plan S, created in a move to crack down on scholarly journals’ paywalls, is receiving pushback from scientists who call the plan “too risky for science.” According to Science Magazine, the scientists put their feelings into writing in an open letter backed by 800 signatories who say they support OA—which would make papers free and available to all—but not like this. (more…)

Thomas J. Schmidt is chair and professor of electrochemistry at ETH Zürich, and head of the Energy and Environment Research Division at Paul Scherrer Institute in Villigen, Switzerland, where he investigates various aspects of electrochemical energy conversion and storage. In 2010, he received the ECS Charles W. Tobias Young Investigator Award.

Schmidt has recently been reappointed as an associate editor of the Journal of The Electrochemical Society (JES) and handles manuscripts submitted to the fuel cells, electrolyzers, and energy conversion topical interest area.

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With top academic publishers like Elsevier holding a 35-40% profit margin and for-profit academic publishers earning $25.2 billion a year, Jason Schmitt began to wonder about the consequences of paywalls on access to scientific research. His questions led to his October 2018 documentary film, Paywall: The Business of Scholarship, where he questioned publishing practices and the public’s limited access to information.

According to IMDb, while filming, Schmitt says he was struck by the global energy and enthusiasm toward open access and the strong resistance to the movement by many of the world’s top publishers. “Further, I found that the funds paid to academic publishers are heavily burdening the higher education market, contributing to the rising tuition fees at all universities, the closure of many institutions and, ultimately, limiting science and progress.” (more…)

Stuart Taylor Credit: OASPA

The Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association recently sat down with Stuart Taylor, publishing director of the Royal Society and their very own, newly appointed OASPA board member, for an interview. Taylor holds 30 years of experience in publishing and has witnessed many changes within the industry, such as the introduction of the open access model.

“I began in the commercial sector. Back then, open access wasn’t a topic I was aware of at all and the concept of open access publishing hadn’t even been invented,” says Taylor.

By the end of the 1990s, however, Taylor says the rumblings of an open access model began to make its presence within the publishing community, which at that time, “Was seen only as a threat to commercial companies. Something to be fought or at least contained.” (more…)

During International Open Access Week 2018 (October 22-28), an event organized by the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), the Society took down the paywall to the ECS Digital Library for the fourth consecutive year, making over 141,000 scientific articles and abstracts free and accessible to everyone.

If you participated in the event, please take a moment to tell us more about your experience.

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In honor of International Open Access Week, from October 22-18, The Scholarly Kitchen wrote a two-part series focusing on both publishers and researchers from disadvantaged global research landscapes. The following publishers and researchers share their thoughts, concerns, successes, and setbacks on their journey to complete access for all. (more…)