Sceptical academics rebuff calls for trust on open access

Conference demonstrates persisting tensions in scholarly publishing

The friction in the room was palpable when academics and publishers convened in Leuven, Belgium, on 6 November for a conference on the controversial open-access initiative Plan S.

Attendees generally agreed on the importance of making the methods and outcomes of research openly available for scrutiny and reuse, but were far more divided on how this should be achieved.