The major academic publishers have made collection and trading of data about the research interests of individuals, groups and research institutions their new business model. Data about your scientific activities are collected in real time across the research workflow. The publishers take notes and sell the knowledge about you to third parties. This business model is in direct opposition to academic freedom. We have to stand up against these corporations!
Stop Tracking Science!
A fundamental transformation is currently changing scholarly publishing to the detriment of science and society. After the commercialization and ensuing development of a dominant oligopoly of a few major publishers, another expropriation of scholarship is now on the agenda: the switch from selling content to trading data. Scientific publishers are becoming data trading platforms. Under the distracting cover of public open access negotiations, science is secretly being threatened to become just another data analytics business.
Acquiring start-ups covering the entire research workflow, the major publishers have already started to collect data on research fields and research processes and now more and more on individual scientists as well. To do this, they deploy various trackers, audience tools and web analytics tools at various points in the research workflow, not only when we visit their servers, but also when we use their research tools. They are even attempting to persuade libraries to install trackers inside university networks: the research behavior of all of us is being recorded in real time. The data obtained are traded, e.g., to sell emerging research trends or to inform governments about dissident intellectuals. At the same time, all of this is a rapidly growing area of business driving the development of new monopolies in the scientific publishing industry. Knowledge belongs less and less to the society that finances it.
Our demands
The current development towards science tracking violates fundamental rights and the integrity of an open knowledge society. We demand:
- Corporate tracking of academics must stop and can no longer be the subject of negotiations between research institutions and publishers.
- Open standards in scholarly communication must take precedence over solutions that promote monopolies of knowledge and provider lock-in.
- All actors in science governance must redesign their decision-making and evaluation instruments and overcome their fixation on bibliometric indicators.
To comply with these demands research institutions must sign the Declaration of Research Assessment (DORA) or an equivalent commitment and immediately stop all payments to and negotiations with companies that track researchers for commercial gain and/or do not provide open standards on research (meta-)data preventing provider lock-in. Funders must make institutions that do not comply ineligible for funding.
- Prof. Dr. Björn Brembs, Universität Regensburg
- Prof. Dr. Anne Baillot, Le Mans Université
- Prof. Dr. Konrad Förstner, ZB MED – Information Centre for Life Sciences / Technische Hochschule Köln
- Prof. Dr. Dagmar Freist, Universität Oldenburg
- Prof. Dr. Peter Hanenberg, Universidade Católica Portuguesa
- Lambert Heller, TIB – German National Library of Science and Technology
- Prof. Dr. Philippe Huneman, IHPST, CNRS, Paris
- Dr. Peter Kraker, Open Knowledge Maps, Wien
- Dr. Danny Kingsley, Australian National University
- Prof. Dr. Dariusz Komorowski, Uniwersytet Wrocław
- Prof. Dr. Gerhard Lauer, Universität Basel
- Prof. Dr. Anne Mangen, Universitetet i Stavanger
- Prof. Dr. Claudia Müller-Birn, Freie Universität Berlin
- Prof. Dr. Felix Schönbrodt, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München
- Dr. Renke Siems, Reutlingen
- Dr. Mike Taylor, University of Bristol
- Prof. Mark Wilson, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
1,291 | Mr. Bastian Welke | Hannover Medical School | |
1,290 | Dr. Jef Ausloos | University of Amsterdam | |
1,289 | Dr. Philipp Girr | University of York | |
1,288 | Dr. Thomas Schultze-Gerlach | Queen's University Belfast | |
1,287 | Mr. Moritz Bald | Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena | |
1,286 | Dr. Roman Stengelin | MPI EVA | |
1,285 | Dr. Juliette Schaafsma | Tilburg University | |
1,284 | Dr. Sebastian Schindler | University of Münster | |
1,283 | Mr. Emir Efendic | Maastricht University | |
1,282 | Dr. Tom Johnstone | Swinburne University of Technology | |
1,281 | Dr. Hendrik Buschmeier | Bielefeld University | |
1,280 | Dr. Stephanie Lichtenfeld | University of Hamburg | |
1,279 | Ms. Martina-Christine Koschwitz | Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für Tropenmedizin | |
1,278 | Ms. Silke Gotthardt | ZBMED Köln | |
1,277 | Ms. Nicole Brune | ||
1,276 | Ms. Fiona Faye | University of Kassel | |
1,275 | Mr. Maik Schmiedeler | ||
1,274 | Dr. Boris Brühmann | University of Freiburg | |
1,273 | Dr. Dennis Mischke | Ada Lovelace Center for Digital Humanities | |
1,272 | Mr. Timo Steyer Steyer | University Library Braunschweig | |
1,271 | Ms. Johannes von Vacano | ULB Bonn / FID Romanistik | |
1,270 | Dr. Jan Horstmann | Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster | |
1,269 | Ms. Sonja Klein | Fraunhofer Institute for Surface Engineering and Thin Films IST | |
1,268 | Ms. Vanessa Kaiser | University and Research Hospital Freiburg, Germany | |
1,267 | Ms. Elli Zey | Goethe University Frankfurt | |
1,266 | Ms. Lucia Cikovska | University of Vienna | |
1,265 | Ms. Beth Evans | Brooklyn College of the City University of New York | |
1,264 | Dr. Allison Langham-Putrow | ||
1,263 | Ms. Stefaniya Kamenova | University of Oslo | |
1,262 | Mr. Jan Melissen | ZHdK | |
1,261 | Mr. Emmanuel Trizac | Université Paris-Saclay | |
1,260 | Ms. Rafiq Bodalal | University of Benghazi | |
1,259 | Dr. Jadranka Stojanovski | University of Zadar | |
1,258 | Dr. Inga Patarcic | MDC Berlin | |
1,257 | Dr. Tobias Winnerling | Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf | |
1,256 | Mr. Florian Cech | Centre for Informatics and Society, TU Wien | |
1,255 | Ms. Zoé Kergomard | University of Zurich | |
1,254 | Ms. Anita Eppelin | Technische Informationsbibliothek (TIB), University of Applied Sciences Potsdam | |
1,253 | Ms. Laurenz Kern | Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin | |
1,252 | Dr. Simeon Vidolov | University College Dublin | |
1,251 | Ms. Bettina Kunz | University of Zurich, Institute of Education | |
1,250 | Ms. Simon Luger | University of Zurich, Institute of Education | |
1,249 | Ms. Meret Stöckli | University of Zurich | |
1,248 | Dr. Johannes Huber | Technical University of Applied Sciences Rosenheim/Germany | |
1,247 | Ms. Agnes Leyrer | University of Vienna | |
1,246 | Dr. Cordula Hölig | University of Hamburg | |
1,245 | Ms. Mareike Christina Harms Buss | Copenhagen Business School | |
1,244 | Ms. Sünje Johanna Pamp | ||
1,243 | Mr. Max Festenstein | Durham University | |
1,242 | Mr. Nicholas Reed | Imperial College London | |
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