I was just reading an interesting comment by Anne Peattie about her experiences with non-open access literature. She raises the point that, out of a direct academic circle, she is unable to access most literature, especially that which is deemed as “high impact” (read: Nature and Science). This reminded me of something I have been thinking of for quite a while in the context of what does a University now a days provide for an academic, in these days of increasing corporatisation. That is, what makes Universities attractive and competitive employers for the best minds? Many of us joined so that we could apply our talents to interesting and difficult long-term research problems, and to communicate our love of science to the inspired next generation. Many now find they spend increasing time filling in pointless administrative forms, dealing with ‘customers’ and facing increasing managerial pressure to behave as if we were in business (but of course for around 1/3 the salary we could potentially earn in the “real world”). I think we are soon approaching a tipping point.
So what ties disgruntled researchers to the University sector, where other opportunities clearly seem better? Why bother having to earn grants to pay your salary via the university if you could just do it directly?
Some idea of flexible working still holds, although this is gradually being eroded by requirements to have one’s wherabouts traced continually. Other employment at this level has reasonable flexibility. And certainly self-employment allows as much flexibility as you can manage.
Partially the requirement for large equipment is limiting, but nowadays contract agreements with a local centre or analytical lab can often be more cost effective than the University-run operations (and often more reliable). This is down to often ineffective use of the University’s economy of scale. Lab space is likely (I haven’t costed it though) to be cheaper to rent than the university space charging models. And if you are doing computational chemistry, then services such as Amazon’s AWS can provide cheap access to Petaflops. This may be adequate for a majority of researchers, especially those not at the largest national institutes.
The two big drivers that therefore hold the whole thing together, from my point of view are these:
1. Letterhead. The University letterhead still allows access to grants, ability to be taken seriously by journal editors and credibility. With the rise of open access publishing through blogs and alternative online resources the necessity for journals become less of an issue, especially as these are becoming vehicles for esteem factors driven by University rankings, rather than outlets for scientific discourse. Getting grants, however, is still likely to be restricted to the anointed few. A shame, because, as highlighted above, grant agencies may find that freelance researchers give them greater value for money. However, the intrepid freelancer may be able to find alternative private sponsors.
2. Literature. This is the biggest hold. Access to up to date articles to keep up with the best science is still a significant requirement and this access is denied (as highlighted in Anne’s article) one the University setting is left. However, there is an interesting trend to smaller Universities significantly downsizing their libraries anyway (see links in “zero-sum publishing game”). Unless you are at a big institution (and even if you are) you are likely to be missing some critical literature that is hard to come by. More and more is accessible from central resources, such as the British Library, although for a price. However, as we get access to more open-source journals of good quality, the need to go through the university for access to restricted hallows of information lessens.
All this points to science as a hobby becoming back in vogue in the not-too-distant future, as options for this are emerging, alongside a vibrant diy-science community. There will be less control by Universities, meaning they will have to push their brand harder. The upcoming battle will be interesting to watch …
