Should research  – especially research produced or undertaken by people funded by taxation – be accessible to all? Should it be always in the public domain? Should there be a compulsion to have it written in clear English (or French, Russian, Mandarin……), using terminology that is pretty much universally accessible and comprehensible? If our taxation paid for it, it’s ours?
Is there any value – other than to those in the inner circle of its production – in research for continued funding, for publication, for status, for career progression, ego or for the impressing of close colleagues. It seems that may be the currency currently driving our HE institutions, and maybe researchers don’t like it but if them’s the rules, what can they do but comply? But is that the case, and should it be? Read more…