Shifting to half-time
December 7, 2021. I'm stepping down as full-time Director of the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication. But I'll stay at Harvard and shift to a new half-time position in Harvard Library starting in July 2022. My new work will consist entirely of the pro bono consulting for open access that I've been doing for years alongside my regular work. I asked for this arrangement and am very grateful that the library agreed to it. — Peter Suber
See the Harvard Library announcement and my Twitter announcement.
For two decades I've done pro bono consulting on open access and related topics, for example, with universities, libraries, funders, scholarly societies, publishers, government agencies, tool-builders, start-ups, projects, and individual researchers. I consult with them about OA policies, practices, and strategies. I help with policy language, implementation strategies, improved practices, and answers to frequently heard questions, objections, and misunderstandings.
I've done this kind of consulting under grants since 2001. First I did it as a philosophy professor on sabbatical, then as freelancer living on grants, then as a fellow at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society. The grants paid for my time so that I could give time freely to OA initiatives in need of help. For these grants, I thank the Open Society Foundations (2001-2009), the Wellcome Trust (2007-2009), the Arcadia Fund (2011-2016), and the Laura and John Arnold Foundation (2016-2018).
From 2013-2018 I worked half-time directing the Harvard Office for Scholarly Communication and half-time running the grant-funded Harvard Open Access Project at the Berkman Klein Center. In 2018 I let the HOAP grants expire and began working full-time in Harvard Library. (Basically, my two half-time jobs had become two full-time jobs.) That could have meant giving my grant-funded consulting. But as soon as I came full-time into the library, it encouraged to do the same kind of consulting on library work time that I previously did under grants. I'm very grateful for that. After I shift to half-time in July 2022, it will continue to pay for this kind of pro bono consulting. It's a remarkable arrangement and I'm very grateful.
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