Conflicts

This is a non-public draft. I'll make it public as soon as I'm happy with it.

• I sometimes serve on advisory boards of organizations whose work I do not entirely endorse. I do so when I'm willing to advise them. If the willingness to advise implied an endorsement, I would not accept the position. However, I'm not even willing to serve on an advisory board if I don't think the organization has some good ideas.

• I consult pro bono on open access. Because I'm not paid for this, I see no conflict of interest. Sometimes this pro bono consulting results in policies or practices I do not entirely endorse. At least I tried.

• I sometimes consult for pay, especially with for-profit companies. I started doing this 15 years ago or more, after I gave up m y salary to work full-time on open access. But when I got more requests than I had time to fulfill, I raised my price until the requests fell to a manageable level. Today I take about 1-2 of of these jobs a year, each for about one hour by telephone. For the past few years, these have always been consultations with investors who are interested in whether the stock of major for-profit academic publishers is going up or down. I never express an opinion on those future stock prices. I limit myself to talking about what's happening with OA and academic publishing, and let the investors draw their own conclusions.

• I used to do a lot of public speaking. Today, for medical reasons, I do much less of it. Sometimes I take honorariums and sometimes I waive them. But even when I take them, I'm never paid to espouse any position but my own.

• I have a salary from Harvard University. When I defend Harvard's policies or practices on OA, I always give my reasons. However, you should decide for yourself whether my advocacy is compromised by my salary. (The chief reason to disclose one's conflicts is to enable readers to decide this question for themselves.)