Open Access News

Gavin Baker, Student activism: How students use the scholarly communication system, College & Research Libraries News, November 10, 2007.  Excerpt:

Faculty aren’t the only users of the scholarly communication system. Students also depend on it for their education, research, and to disseminate their own ideas. And students, like faculty, have taken action to broaden access to the academic literature and maximize the value of this important resource....

How students participate in the scholarly communication system

1. Students are users of journal literature. The research paper is a staple of student life...and broad access to the literature enhances the student’s education.

[S]tudents are frequently  assigned journal literature as class readings in addition to, or in place of, textbooks....[I]n classes that rely on large numbers of journal articles, students often are required to purchase a coursepack or sourcebook containing the readings...The cost of these coursepacks can rival the cost of textbooks. Unlike textbooks, however, coursepacks often have no resale value....

2. Students are authors of journal literature. Some students, particularly graduate students, will have the occasion to publish their work in a scholarly journal, often coauthored with a faculty mentor....

3. Students are editors of scholarly journals....In addition to student journals, students also edit professional scholarly journals. Law reviews, for example, are frequently wholly student-edited....

4. Students are constituents of the scholarly communication system. Students are a constituency of university governance—often formally, such as through a student government or graduate student council....

Finally, students are also citizens and taxpayers, who have an interest in maximizing the public investment in science, just like any other taxpayer.

How students have been involved

Students have been involved with changing scholarly communication since at least 2003, when the Berkeley Graduate Assembly issued a statement on the serials crisis. In March 2006, the University of Iowa’s Graduate Student Senate became the first graduate representative body to specifically endorse open access.

Students have been particularly involved with public access to taxpayer-funded research. Three student organizations —the American Medical Student Association (AMSA), Universities Allied for Essential Medicines, and FreeCulture.org— are members of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access; AMSA was a founding member of the coalition. In June 2006, the University of Florida Student Senate became the first university-wide representative body to endorse the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), which would provide public access to the research output of eleven government departments and agencies. Oberlin College and Trinity University followed in March 2007....

Students have also supported open access in more creative ways. CALPIRG, the California Student Public Interest Research Group, in 2005 released a report endorsing open access journals and institutional repositories....[I]n February 2007, FreeCulture.org (now Students for Free Culture) organized a day of action on its campuses, with chapters hosting events and activities to call attention to open access.

Students have also embraced open access for their own research. In 2007, Rasmus Bjørk, a graduate student in astrophysics at the University of Copenhagen, deposited his article, “Exploring the Galaxy Using Space Probes,” in the physics preprint server arXiv. Journalists became aware of the article prior to its journal publication, and the research was covered in venues such as The Guardian, BBC, and New Scientist.1 Students have also started new open access journals, such as the Journal of Physics Students....

Personally, after I finished my degree, I took an internship with SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition. Over the summer, I researched the state of student engagement with open access, designed a student outreach campaign, and drafted informational materials for students....

What libraries can do

Libraries seeking to build support for open access would be wise to invite students as allies....

Aside from the effort to change scholarly communication, open access also can and should be presented to students as part of library services and information literacy programs. Guiding students to open access resources alongside other library resources helps information-seekers find what they’re looking for, reclaims the library’s role in information retrieval, and educates students about open access in the process....

If librarians offer workshops on getting published or on copyright, they should not miss the opportunity to emphasize the benefits of open access to the author. Early research suggests that student authors are particularly motivated by the accessibility and impact of their work....

Luckily, librarians aren’t alone when it comes to campus outreach. SPARC is developing a student outreach campaign, including a brochure and Web site of informational materials that libraries can use. For more information about the campaign and for help connecting with students on your campus, contact SPARC....