Abeni Wickham, SciFree

1. Asking Questions to Solve a
Problem
Presented by Abeni Wickham , PhD
LOA 2020
SciFree AB

2. Introduction
Who do we serve?
What would scientific dissemination look like if it
began today?
How do we move forward, together?
OUR OVERVIEW

3. I N T R O
Born in Guyana, South America
HS in Jamaica Queens: Intro to
Advanced Research
Tufts: BME/Philosophy
UCL: Biomaterials
Linköping Uni: MolyPhys/Regen Med
Max Planck Colloids & Interfaces:
Collagen
Imperial College: Cardiac/Collagen
A PhD didn't come easy.

4. The Process
"The thing we do can never
define who we are but it is the
activity that helps us express
and realise who we are at our
centre"
- Dr. Michael Gervais

5. Who do we
serve?
Public?
The University?
The Researchers?
Ourselves?

6. Fake News is free, then shouldn't
science be free too?
The Public
To abandon facts is to
abandon freedom
-Prof Snyder (Yale
University)

7. How do we stay relevant in a world where
everyone can be an expert after a few YouTube
videos?
The University "The future is already here, it
is just not evenly
distributed."
-William Gibson

8. Publish or Perish
The Researcher
You can't control the outcomes,
just the processes. As long as
you've used the best process
you've done the best that you
can. - Tom Griffiths
(Psychologist, cognitive
scientist)

9. What value can I create?
Ourselves
"The only difference
between what is possible
and impossible is your
willingness to acquire the
skills and put them to the
test"- Tom Bilyeu

10. O k , well, s t ar t y our own c om pany and pr ov e it !
1 2 3 4
The workload of
researchers and libraries
can be reduced so they
can share and serve
Why
Technological
Infrastructure to
incentivise change
How
People who value
the process of
research
Who
Now
When

11. T h e B i g Q u e s t i o n
What would scientific dissemination look like
if it began today?

12. S c i e n t i f i c F r e e d o m
Reduce academia's publishing workload
Equitable distribution of academic content and
resources
Change the business model incentive from
Publish or Perish to Share and Serve.
D e m o c r a t i s a t i o n o f A c a d e m i c C o n t e n t
S c i F r e e A B 2 0 1 8 S t o c k h o l m

13. St ar t - up lif e
It is the same as starting a
research group :-)
IDEA
Day 1
Year 2
5 Years
Start a company
apply for 13 grants
Apply for more grants, learn to
pitch, learn accounting and so
much more.
Continuous
Learn to be a good CEO

14. It was me!
Being the first to discover
Formatting
Each journal has its own
publishing styles. Would be easier
to resubmit a paper to another
journal without tiresome and
laborious reformatting
Peer-Review
Long Revision time (record 13
months)
T he
Resear cher
What do you hate & love
about scientific
publishing?
Satisfaction vs Anxiety
Don't like that publishing has
become a business leading to
many lower quality journals
> 1 0 0 r e s e a r c h e r s i n
2 0 1 8 / 2 0 1 9

15. Prestige
Being the first to discover
Formatting
The process of resubmitting
manuscripts, different submissions
systems
Peer-review
Long Review Process
T he
Publisher s
What do you hate & love
about scientific
publishing?
Satisfaction vs Anxiety
Love/hate the reward and the
incentive systems
> 5 2 p u b l i s h e r s a t
A L P S P c o n f e r e n c e 2 0 1 9

16. Prestige
Being the first to discover
Connecting
Researchers don't know all
the work you are doing for them
Price
High Costs, No Value
T he
Univer sit y
What do you hate & love
about scientific
publishing?
Open Access
Everyone should know what your
university is capable of.

17. We listen, then we build
S c i F r e e E m p o w e r i n g R e s e a r c h e r s a n d U n i v e r s i t i e s

18. T E C H 1
Where to Publish

19. We have a lot of
people to serve
Number of researchers
Consider creating the
value for yourselves
Value
The public, the researchers, the students are waiting for us
to join the democratisation of information movement.
W ho do we serve?
UNESCO 2030 Agenda Report7million Revenue for Publishers>10billion

20. Values drive innovation
We serve each other
Build for each other
Running a start-up as a researcher: question,
review and implement (they call it “lean” we call it
“scientific methodology” )
OUR SUMMARY

21. THANK
YOU!
Serving with help from:
Contact
abeniwickham@scientificfreedom.org
www.scientificfreedom.org