The Financial Times recently published an article detailing Sorbonne University’s “radical decision” to switch to OpenAlex for its publication database and bibliometric analytics. The article (behind a paywall, unfortunately 😞) came out a little while ago, but we wanted to highlight it here in case you missed it.

The news comes in the context of “a wider pushback against the current model in academic publishing, where researchers publish and review papers for free but have to buy expensive subscriptions to the journals in which they are published to analyse data relating to their work.” It includes a quote from OurResearch/OpenAlex co-founder and CEO Jason Priem: “We felt there’s a mismatch between the values of the academy and the shareholder boardroom. Research is fundamentally about sharing, while for-profits are fundamentally about capturing and enclosing. We aim to create and sustain research infrastructure that’s truly aligned with . . . the values of the research community.”

Exciting times for OpenAlex and open science!

Jack, Andrew. “Sorbonne’s Embrace of Free Research Platform Shakes up Academic Publishing.” Financial Times, December 27, 2023. https://www.ft.com/content/89098b25-78af-4539-ba24-c770cf9ec7c3.