From: Richard Poynder <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Tue, 31 May 2016 14:47:47 +0100

Fifteen months ago 35-year old French scientist Michaël Bon launched a
new open-access publishing service called the Self-Journal of Science
(SJS).

SJS describes itself as a “non-commercial, multidisciplinary
repository that provides journal-like services to entrust the
evaluation, classification and communication of research to the
unrestricted collective intelligence of the scientific community
itself.”

What is noteworthy about SJS is that it is not another open access
journal, but a new-style publishing platform, and one that could be
viewed as a direct challenge to the top-down power structure of
academia, and to the oligarchic editorial boards of legacy journals.

It is also worth noting that Bon was not aware of the open access
movement when he conceived SJS. His aim was to fix what he sees as
serious problems in the current scholarly communication system –
problems of quality, of transparency, and of effectiveness.

When he did find out about the open access movement Bon concluded that
OA advocates have been trying to do things back to front, and as a
result have played into the hands of publishers.

That is, in seeking to fix the access issue prior to fixing the
structural flaws in the current publishing system the open access
movement is overseeing the relocation of a broken model into a new
environment.

By contrast, says Bon, SJS is focused on exploiting the new
environment to reinvent scholarly communication. In the process, he
says, the access issue is solved collaterally – since openness is a
given in SJS’ modus operandi.

If you want to find out more about how SJS works, about Bon’s
philosophy and objectives, and where he thinks the OA movement has
gone wrong, you can read a Q&A with him here:

Open and Shut?: The OA Interviews: Michaël Bon, Founder of the
Self-Journal of Science

Richard Poynder