Bryan Cook

percentage of 2022 articles published in special education shared as hybrid OA, bronze, green OA, and shared journal articles.

Data, code, materials, and preregistration available on OSF project page @ osf.io/85mra. Freely accessible postprint available @ doi.org/10.35542/osf....

Findings reminded us of a glass that is both half full and half empty. It is great that over half of 2022 publications could be accessed freely. But that means almost half of articles could not. Furthermore, the most popular approach for sharing articles often violates copyright.

The most common option for accessing paywalled articles was purchasing online access with the option to download. The average cost for downloadable access to paywalled articles was $36 (SD = $16), with a median of $37.50 and range of $14 to $65.

Articles (a) noting a funding source and (b) published in journals with higher JIFs were more likely to be open; articles with non-US corresponding authors were >1,000% more likely to be hybrid OA but less likely to be bronze or shared without an OA license.

55% of articles available in some way (higher than we expected). Shared was the most common (19%) and bronze the least common (12%). ResearchGate was the most common source of shared articles (33%) and most green OA papers were specified to be postprints (62%).

Bronze = available on journal website without OA license
Green OA = author-formatted version available (e.g., on a repository or archive)
Shared = version of record available outside of journal website without OA license (e.g., ResearchGate, often in violation of copyright)

We coded all 1,678 articles published in 2022 in 43 special education journals. Articles were coded as paywalled, hybrid open access (OA; none of the journals were gold OA), bronze, green OA, or shared. Where …

screen capture of article title and authors

New publication on open-access publication in special education journals published in Exceptional Children. journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

This is on my shortlist of favorite papers I’ve had the good fortune to be involved in. Open access if you’re interested in reading.

New pub alert! Didion et al. report an RCT examining effects of an extended version of Data Mountain (30 lessons instead of 15) on reading fluency for elem students with and at risk for reading disabilities when administered individually and in small groups. riseopenjournal.org/article/id/2...

New Publication Alert: "Sharing Materials to Heighten the Impact of Publications" by Campbell, Brunsting, Landmark, Butler, and Cook. The paper provides an overview of issues and recommendations for sharing materials with research and practitioner publications. riseopenjournal.org/article/id/2...

Dear Isamu, Thanks for thinking of me as a possible reviewer, as I am highly interested in the topic of that manuscript. However, certain scientific publishers, such as Vision Research’s publisher Elsevier, have higher profit margins than the companies in almost every other legal industry, which comes largely from university library funds, on the backs of scholars’ unpaid labor (https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/jun/27/profitable-business-scientific-publishing-bad-for-science; https://alexholcombe.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/scholarly-publishers-and-their-high-profits/ ; https://researchintegrityjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s41073-021-00118-2 ). Moreover, Elsevier in particular has over the years obstructed many attempts at reform, such as with their donations to members of the U.S. Congress to end the NIH’s Public Access Policy. These are some of the reasons that I pledged over fifteen years ago to spend most of my time supporting alternatives, such as diamond (free to publish in) open access journals, preprint servers, and journal-independent peer review services. Your journal has a venerable history of publishing high-quality research, which I think is largely due to the efforts of the editorial board and the reviewers, not the publisher, yet somehow the publisher charges my university over a million dollars a year. At the Free Journal Network (https://freejournals.org/), we list many diamond open access journals that have shown an alternative path. If you’d like to know more about that avenue, let me know; it would be nice to have a chat. Best Alex

Many academics, perversely, do volunteer work for the multinationals that financially milk academia. Worse, these corporations have 'captured' academia in that many academics chase the brands they own (high-impact journals), and the metrics they control, above all else.

Call for manuscripts for a special series in Research in Special Education -- Open Science Practices and the Early Career Researcher: A Push to Advance Special Education Research

riseopenjournal.org/news/20/

A great opportunity for early career researchers!

New publication alert! Prioritizing Preregistration in Special Education Research
@allisonlombardi.bsky.social and colleagues provide an overview and recommendations for preregistering different types of research in special education and related fields.

riseopenjournal.org/article/id/2...

‘The Interview’: Ed Yong Wants to Show You the Hidden Reality of the World The Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer talks about burnout from covering the pandemic and how bird-watching gave him a new sense of hope.

On the cutting room floor is the bit where the host introduced their interview series, The Interview, and I asked how long it took to come up with the name. Anyway, here’s me talking about birds and science and burnout and moving through the world. The photo’s nice! www.nytimes.com/2025/02/22/m...

Table 2. Publisher policies for posting preprints and postprints

Table 1: Open Access Publishing Models

A couple of tidbits from the paper

Very proud to have been involved with articles with a wonderful group of colleagues. I think the article lays out the different model of open-access publishing well and provides clear guidelines for engaging them.

Portuguese editorial cartoonist Zez Vaz reaches back to Tiananmen Square to call on American defiance.

New RiSE publication alert! riseopenjournal.org/article/id/2...

Overhead projector displaying: Emergency Unconference Session: Federal Funding Crisis & the Future of Special Education Research

#PCRC, today’s Unconference, brought to you by @bill-therrien.bsky.social @bryancook.bsky.social, debriefs what the heck is happening with the grant funding.

“Why do you think this practice should or shouldn’t be used?” We asked education researchers about #QuestionableResearchPractices (e.g., selectively reporting results) and about #OpenScience practices like preregistration, open data, and replication. #Preprint osf.io/preprints/ed...

The Time for AI-Generated Peer-Reviews is Now I should have done this before I submitted a ms. for publication, but later is better than never. After waiting for a couple of months, I received a rejection for a ms. on the relationship between …

Have you tried to ask ChatGPT for a review of your ms. before you submit it? I highly recommend it. Here is a case study.
replicationindex.com/2024/12/23/t...

Sarah Powell, Erica Lembke, and Brad Witzel, and other leaders in math education for students with disabilities respond to the recent NCTM/CEC joint statement

New survey findings on science instruction for students with learning disabilities from the Special Education Research Accelerator.

SERA is on bluesky! Check out the Special Education Research Accelerator and learn about crowdsourcing research in special education. Better yet, become a research partner and do crowdsourced research with us! edresearchaccelerator.org

There are a growing number of diamond open-access journals in special education and related fields, like RiSE, that make articles freely available at no cost to authors. riseopenjournal.org, openjournals.bsu.edu/JOSEP, journals.shareok.org/singlecasejo..., stars.library.ucf.edu/constellatio...

2024 Original Disability Holiday Gift Guide Support disabled creators and give back to disability organizations this holiday season!

I know it's been an awful year with uncertainty ahead, so I hope this 2024 Disability Holiday Gift Guide brings you a moment of joy among the chaos.

You'll find cool things from disabled small business owners, some book recommendations, and disability-led causes. emilyladau.com/2024/12/2024...

Check out the guidelines and fantastic resources for sharing data from @cmwhite.bsky.social and colleagues in the first article published RiSE! riseopenjournal.org/article/id/2... Like all articles in the journal, it is freely accessible to everyone!