fundamentals of eDNA

Personally, I have only published one paper thus far, on taxonomy of bivalves in South-East Asia, with several more on the topic in the works. Given the hardly ground-breaking nature of this work, and the fact that my subjects are far from charismatic taxa and have limited socioeconomic or cultural value; it was a given between my supervisor and I to publish in an open access journal from the start. We did this with the intention of maximising access to potential readership. Taxonomy, even driven by molecular data, is an unglamorous and unpopular field, and as such, it is best to make sure that our work is as accessible as possible for those that may follow in our footsteps.

I had little reservations about the potential flaws of publishing in open access journals, and I have fortunately found my reviewers to offer constructive and thorough advice. As for data sharing, it is standard practice to share molecular data (e.g. barcodes for un-sequenced species) on genetic databases anyway, but I can understand the hesitance of researchers to share more openly about intermediate stages in the data analysis process, as well as to be more open about challenges and difficulties faced during the project.

I was surprised to learn that barriers to cost can still be a problem for open access journals, especially in smaller universities, and even at UMaine. It wasn’t something that crossed my mind, but on hindsight, my undergraduate university, as well as the university I worked for prior to joining UMaine were hardly places with funding issues, relatively speaking.

Otherwise, most of the points of discussion were familiar to me, given that it is a common point of discussion with my peers who are further along in their academic careers than I. While I have been aware that more of the most prestigious universities and prolific researchers out there have been pushing for open access in recent years, the perverse incentives that allow predatory publishing to flourish are deeply entrenched, and can only be slowly eroded away with time. For one, Singaporean universities are still a bit too particular about impact factor for my taste.

As part of working in larger teams, I feel that the concept of the science pre-nup brought up last week is highly useful. It is important to determine from the start how thoroughly the research process will be documented, and what data, as well as code and other intermediate products of the project the researchers in the team are less comfortable with making open-access. Of course, the pre-nup may have to be amended with changing circumstances, but as with all things, it goes without saying that clear, open communication between team members is key.