UC Research Should Be Free to All: COVID-19 Shows Us Why
The University of California has long believed that its research should be free for all to access. A world without barriers to knowledge promotes progress — including in the critically important fields of healthcare and medicine — and maximizes the impact of research. Since the pandemic struck, research on the novel coronavirus has been shared freely worldwide. In this panel discussion, Britt Glaunsinger, professor and researcher who specializes in viruses, Jeff MacKie-Mason, university librarian and professor, and Randy Schekman, Nobel Laureate and professor, explain why we should never go back to our old ways of scientific publishing.
Glaunsinger is a UC Berkeley professor in the Department of Plant & Microbial Biology and the Department of Molecular & Cellular Biology and is also a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator.
MacKie-Mason is UC Berkeley’s university librarian, chief digital scholarship officer, and a professor of economics and information. He is co-chair of the UC-wide task force that negotiates with academic publishers.
Schekman is a UC Berkeley professor of cell and developmental biology, a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator, and recipient of the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Samberg leads the UC Berkeley Library’s Office of Scholarly Communication Services, which helps scholars navigate the shifting publishing, intellectual property, and information policy landscapes.