... Open Access Day ... happened to coincide with one of the most significant events in Open Access publishing. BioMed central, one of the original pioneers of OA publishing, was recently purchased by the Springer publishing group which was heralded as great news for science in the Guardian. BioMed had shown that Open Access could indeed be profitable, and it awaits to be seen if and when other publishers will follow suit.
It has to happen. Free, transparent and democratic access to (what is often) taxpayer funded research makes so much sense that it almost seems more reasonable to wonder why it’s taken so long in the first place. ...
Well the bad news is that the OAA blog totally failed to synch up with Open Access Day. The good news is that every day is open access day here at OAAA. In honor of OAD I’m hoping to turn over a new leaf and add a new feature to this blog — I’ll begin posting links to OA resources on the web here on the blog. That way people will begin to see not only the ethical and political dimensions of OA that are important to us, but it will also demonstrate how useful OA is to you and how many other people are doing it. So… stay tuned!
Information wants to be free, they say, but there is this pesky thing called copyright. There is also an issue with money. One of the most interesting developments in science over the last few years has been the movement to provide free and open access to the science journals which publiish peer-reviewed articles. Brian Switek is preparing a book on Evolution, and in preparation often runs into study which would help him ensure that the research behind his book; but runs into a “money firewall.” In order to read the article he would need to be a subscriber (and pay an expensive subscription fee for a single article,) hope that his university has purchased access to the journal, or rely on an acquaintance who may have access. Bora has collected a series of posts on the expansive opportunities of open-access publication and how it affects research and public understading of science. Open-Access Day! May the feeling last throughout the year!
... Open Access is a publishing model for academic journals. In the currently dominant publishing model, readers pay a fee to access scholarly articles (either individually or by paying for a subscription to a journal) and these fees support the publishing businesses. In an OA model, the authors or their institutions pay fees to support the publishers and the peer review process: after an article is published, any reader anywhere in the world can access the article freely. These different models have different implications for who can access and use the world’s scholarly information. ...
We live in a world of “haves” and “have not’s.” Although it may be an over generalization, one can say that the vast majority of people want to be “haves” and in most cases only a small minority of people want others to be “have nots.” ... But access to information and knowledge, like love, is different. The same knowledge can be gained or “owned” by 2 people or 200 thousand - it is infinitely divisible and yet constantly whole. Everyone can be a “have” and only those few folks who are unwilling to try to access the open resources all around them need be the “have nots” of the world. Open access tells everyone else to jump in to the KnowledgeEconomy - the water is fine!
Posted by
Gavin Baker at 10/17/2008 07:14:00 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.
