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What is Open Access
* Around the turn of the Millennium, the movement to
open up to a wider public access scientific and academic knowledge generated by thousands of researchers around the world -traditionally disseminated in refeered scholarly journals -.has been expedited by the rapid increase in the capacity and speed of Information Technologies. It now includes monographs, books and book chapters.
* Hundreds of research organisations around the world have ratified the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities developed at an international conference organised by Max Planck Society in Germany in 2003. In part, the declaration states that:
Our mission of disseminating knowledge is only half complete if the information is not made widely and readily available to society. New possibilities of knowledge dissemination not only through the classical form but also and increasingly through the open access paradigm via the Internet have to be supported. We define open access as a comprehensive source of human knowledge and cultural heritage that has been approved by the scientific community (http://oa.mpg.de/lang/en-uk/berlin-prozess/berliner-erklarung/).
* An ever increasing number of universities around the world provide the means for their staff to archive post or pre-published versions of their published articles and chapters through Open Access on their institutional websites. Many universities mandate such practice on all publications conducted by their staff. Several publishers have granted the institutions and the authors blanket rights for this means of publication.
* Many national public funding agencies around the world are mandating that publications from research funded by them be placed on Open Access. National funding bodies in Europe, USA, and Australia are gradually setting up their Open Access policies. For example, The Australian Research Council (ARC) is considering a plan to require free public access to all scientific papers created as a result of projects it funds, potentially bringing it into line with the open access policies adopted by CSIRO and the National Health and Medical Research Council. (Conservations: Latest
ideas and Research, 3 October 2012. http://theconversation.edu.au/australian-research-council-moves-to-provide-better-access-to-data-9952)
* There is increasing research evidence that Open Access publications have increased citation rates in fields such as medical sciences (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22180873) and have led to higher impact in fields such as philosophy, political science, electrical and electronic engineering and mathematics (http://crl.acrl.org/content/65/5/372).
* Eysenbach G (2006) argued that Open Access “is likely to benefit science by accelerating dissemination and uptake of research findings”. (http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040157)
* FAY BOUND ALBERTI (2010) argued that “Opponents to the open access movement might argue this will threaten the viability of a stable system, decreasing academic standards and toppling publishers. These claims are unfounded. Firstly, open access still depends on peer review … Scholarly integrity is thus maintained, and the impact of British academics will even be strengthened, as there is evidence that open access publications have higher citation rates (this will impact positively on Britain’s global university ranking)” (http://www.opendemocracy.net/fay-bound-alberti/briefing-on-open-access-and-policy-reform)
* With the increasing cost of academic and scientific publications, the gaps in access to knowledge (and hence power) between the haves and the have-nots is increasing more today than it has ever been. Thus Open Access is equity and social justice issue towards increasing quality of life and democratic participation by millions of people around the world.
open up to a wider public access scientific and academic knowledge generated by thousands of researchers around the world -traditionally disseminated in refeered scholarly journals -.has been expedited by the rapid increase in the capacity and speed of Information Technologies. It now includes monographs, books and book chapters.
* Hundreds of research organisations around the world have ratified the Berlin Declaration on Open Access to Knowledge in the Sciences and Humanities developed at an international conference organised by Max Planck Society in Germany in 2003. In part, the declaration states that:
Our mission of disseminating knowledge is only half complete if the information is not made widely and readily available to society. New possibilities of knowledge dissemination not only through the classical form but also and increasingly through the open access paradigm via the Internet have to be supported. We define open access as a comprehensive source of human knowledge and cultural heritage that has been approved by the scientific community (http://oa.mpg.de/lang/en-uk/berlin-prozess/berliner-erklarung/).
* An ever increasing number of universities around the world provide the means for their staff to archive post or pre-published versions of their published articles and chapters through Open Access on their institutional websites. Many universities mandate such practice on all publications conducted by their staff. Several publishers have granted the institutions and the authors blanket rights for this means of publication.
* Many national public funding agencies around the world are mandating that publications from research funded by them be placed on Open Access. National funding bodies in Europe, USA, and Australia are gradually setting up their Open Access policies. For example, The Australian Research Council (ARC) is considering a plan to require free public access to all scientific papers created as a result of projects it funds, potentially bringing it into line with the open access policies adopted by CSIRO and the National Health and Medical Research Council. (Conservations: Latest
ideas and Research, 3 October 2012. http://theconversation.edu.au/australian-research-council-moves-to-provide-better-access-to-data-9952)
* There is increasing research evidence that Open Access publications have increased citation rates in fields such as medical sciences (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22180873) and have led to higher impact in fields such as philosophy, political science, electrical and electronic engineering and mathematics (http://crl.acrl.org/content/65/5/372).
* Eysenbach G (2006) argued that Open Access “is likely to benefit science by accelerating dissemination and uptake of research findings”. (http://www.plosbiology.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040157)
* FAY BOUND ALBERTI (2010) argued that “Opponents to the open access movement might argue this will threaten the viability of a stable system, decreasing academic standards and toppling publishers. These claims are unfounded. Firstly, open access still depends on peer review … Scholarly integrity is thus maintained, and the impact of British academics will even be strengthened, as there is evidence that open access publications have higher citation rates (this will impact positively on Britain’s global university ranking)” (http://www.opendemocracy.net/fay-bound-alberti/briefing-on-open-access-and-policy-reform)
* With the increasing cost of academic and scientific publications, the gaps in access to knowledge (and hence power) between the haves and the have-nots is increasing more today than it has ever been. Thus Open Access is equity and social justice issue towards increasing quality of life and democratic participation by millions of people around the world.