The structural transformation of the scientific public sphere
Constitution and consequences of the path towards open access
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11340944 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Leonhard Dobusch (0000-0002-5448-4683, Universität Innsbruck, corresponding author), Maximilian Heimstädt (0000-0003-2786-8187, Weizenbaum Institute, Berlin) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 50 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 216-238 |
| Publication date | 2024-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Philosophy & Social Criticism (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0191-4537 • E-ISSN: 1461-734X |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/01914537231203558 |
| OpenAlex | W4387576860 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 39 |
We are currently witnessing a fundamental structural transformation of the scientific public sphere, characterized by processes of specialization, metrification, internationalization, platformization and visibilization. In contrast to explanations of this structural transformation that invoke a technological determinism, we demonstrate its historical contingency by drawing on analytic concepts from organization theory and the case of the Open Access transformation in Germany. The digitization of academic journals has not broadened access to scientific output but narrowed it down even further in the course of the ‘serials crisis’. For a long time, research institutions were not able to convince large academic publishers to adopt less restrictive forms of access to academic journals. It was only through the emergence of new and in part illegal actors (shadow libraries and preprint servers) that the existing path could be broken, and an Open Access path constituted. Following this analysis, we discuss consequences of the Open Access transformation for the public spheres of science and democracy. We conclude that Open Access publishing can only help to transform both communicative spaces towards the normative ideal of a public sphere when complemented by systematic support for non-profit publication infrastructures
Democracy · Political science · Public sphere · Sociology · Academic Publishing and Open Access · Law · Research Data Management Practices · scientometrics and bibliometrics research
Opening Science
Scholarship in the Digital Age
Meta-organizations
Growth rates of modern science
Organizational Path Dependence
Turning the University into an Organizational Actor
The academic, economic and societal impacts of Open Access
Does high public debt consistently stifle economic growth? A critique of Reinhart and Rogoff
‘Predatory’ open access
Free-Riding on Power Laws
From Research Evaluation to Research Analytics. The digitization of academic performance measurement
Quantification 2.0? Bibliometric Infrastructures in Academic Evaluation
How Rankings Produce Competition
Verwissenschaftlichung der Gesellschaft – Politisierung der Wissenschaft
Scientific Journal Publications
The future(s) of open science
Automating the Horae
Science and trans-science
Clickbait or conspiracy? How Twitter users address the epistemic uncertainty of a controversial preprint
Peripheral scholarship and the context of foreign paid publishing in Nigeria
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2026 (3) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |