To get new information to the right people at the right time requires knowledge producers to break down many different barriers. The barriers to the flow of information are not just geographic. A fissure can be found between universities and private companies, which tacitly means between scientific knowledge and product knowledge....Knowledge becomes significant only when it is expressed in practical terms, such as product development and other applications. However, information becomes knowledge and applicable only when built upon the ever-growing body of basic knowledge, which is discovered in the academic inquiry of the university. To achieve such a complementary fusion of knowledge, those interested in the creation and application of knowledge need to find ways to scale the fences that might separate them. Such fences involve the languages (both cultural and terminological) of the fields of expertise, the different social rules and forms of expression between and within organizations, a lack of trust, and varying goals and interests, to name a few, which create barriers to effective communication and the quality use of knowledge. One possible means of bridging the gap between these distinct cultures is through open access scientific publishing.
Open access journals make knowledge and discovery freely available for those who need it. As search technologies gradually improve, knowledge seekers shall undoubtedly find it much easier to surface the pieces of knowledge needed from among a great variety of available information. Open access journals allow those who seek information to find those whose prior seeking has resulted in new perspectives, new data, new knowledge. For this reason alone open access journals are an essential part of communicating about scientific research findings and knowledge. And it seems that open access publishing is an especially natural way for university research to be distributed for the greater good. The salaries paid to university researchers normally come from public money, by extension from the taxpayers. Ethically, it seems a good principle that knowledge generated through the support of the general public should be equally available and, perhaps beneficial, to all the members of society....
If universities keep the new knowledge behind their walls or offer limited access to it, then they have overlooked their duties to society. And if government officials, who make decisions regarding university funding for research and dispersal of research knowledge, do not see that new scientific innovations must be easily and effectively offered for the use of society, then the barriers to innovative use of new ideas slow down the availability of knowledge to those who need it and who have paid through their taxes to create it. The time seems right to give up the old images and practices regarding research, knowledge, and innovation. Open access publishing makes it possible, but also necessary, to look at the role of basic knowledge within society and the roles of university research in the webs of innovation management in a new way.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 4/27/2006 02:16:00 PM.
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.
