Scientist meets Publisher is a YouTube video that aims to get researchers thinking about signing away their copyright. Many researchers unthinkingly assign copyright to journal publishers in the mistaken belief that doing do is the only way to get work published.

Other options - publishing in an open access journal, licensing data for publication rather than handing over copyright - are generally not considered, in some cases because researchers do not ask and publishers do not offer. The system where researchers and reviewers work for free and hand their work to publishers who make bags of money is increasingly being seen as unfair - and a considerable brake upon open scholarly communication.

It is a timely video, coming in advance of Open Access Week, (October 24-30, 2011) when a range of advocacy events, activities and a blizzard of publicity will attempt to get open access and open scholarship front and centre in researchers' minds.