...Many developing countries have not fully analyzed the policy implications of access to, and control over, digital and internet content. This paper analyzes the implications of digital and internet content policy for access to knowledge in developing countries and makes some initial recommendations for developing countries....
Technological protection measures and digital rights management systems present a real and present danger to access for developing countries and provide no added value for the development of indigenous industries such as publishing and music industries....
A significant factor for developing country educators and scholars is the growth of open access scholarship repositories into which more and more scholars are placing their work. These repositories, while not necessarily peer-reviewed, also include papers published elsewhere in peer-reviewed journals. Works can be uploaded and downloaded fairly easily for free and can enable two-way traffic by allowing scholars from the South to place their works in such repositories and by enabling access to the most up to date writings in their field. In this way the commons of scholarship can grow and such articles and writing can provide a free basis on which developing country scholars and educators can build reading lists, based on South scholarship as well as scholarship from developed countries....
A major advantage of such repositories is that they provide a clear incentive for scholars to deposit their works so that they can not only have their work placed in prestigious journals, but also have that work disseminated and cited as widely as possible....
For now, subscription journals, while having the potential to increase access, are not yet a viable tool....However, the rise of free electronic journals provides an alternative mode of access, while maintaining the crucial peer review and filtering mechanism. Taking advantage of the freeing up of distribution channels and the lowering of production costs, scholars in different subject matter areas are collaborating to produce free electronic journals that provide the advantage of peer review without the subscription costs....This is a godsend for librarians who can build their journal collections without having to purchase expensive journal subscriptions....
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/11/2007 09:48:00 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.
