Enter the Internet, the World Wide Web and the Google. Suddenly, some journals became easily and freely accessible by anyone using a web-browser. Suddenly, the playing fields are levelled – or at least the dice becomes much less loaded....In short, there is now a much better chance that an article published in a not-so-famous journal will be easily picked up as a relevant reference by a web-searching researcher, if (though a very big if at that) the journal is freely accessible on the web. All other things being equal, this would make the ‘open access’ journals more attractive to the authors compared to the non-open access ones. The number of open access journals, though steadily on the rise, continues to be small, however, amounting to less than a few per cent....The way out of [the dilemma between OA journals, which are few in number, and non-OA journals, which don't offer OA] is the brilliant and breathtakingly simple solution: Open Access through The e-Print Archive....The e-print revolution simultaneously solves two of the major problems faced by the developing nations: improving the visibility of their research and improving access to the research articles from the developed ones....It should by now become obvious that starting and filling an institutional e-print archive (containing the peer reviewed publications from the institution) is easy, inexpensive, and immensely beneficial to all – a truly win-win-win situation....[F]unding agencies, especially the public/governments ones,...are beginning to see the advantages of such archives being set up. This is the surest way of truthfully declaring that the results of publicly funded research (at least, in the form of peer reviewed scientific publications) are indeed accessible to the public....What can be a better testimony (and foundation) for the progress of science than the fact that the entire corpus of scientific and technical knowledge is at the fingertips of everyone – all answers just a click away. That is e-print revolution for you.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/21/2005 10:32:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
