Over the summer of 2020, Lars, DOAJ’s Managing Director and Founder, was interviewed by the Against the Grain journal. The interview with Tom Gilson (Associate Editor, Against the Grain) and Katina Strauch (Editor, Against the Grain), has been published in the September issue. In the in-depth piece, Lars talks about the beginnings of DOAJ and how it has grown, is set up and run today.
He talks about the financial support we receive from libraries, publishers, research funders, and even governments, and the time that our generous Board, Council, Ambassadors and volunteers donate to us to keep DOAJ running.
Lars mentions the growth of open access and the problems it has met along the way; why hybrid publishing is so problematic and why the academy should take back control of the dissemination of scholarly knowledge.
The academy has lost control over the intellectual output of their researchers. It could, however, take back that control; the academy could and should take the driver’s seat and organize the dissemination themselves via collaborative non-commercial publishing ventures or, at the very least, when the academy outsources to commercial publishers they should do real procurement and service level agreements.
