In Wednesday’s class, we introduced scholarly resources and have briefly examined the traditional scholarly publication model. For this post, we’d like you to take a look at Open Access and discuss its implications and what it might mean for the future of academic scholarship.
Wake Forest University
![[cupola]](/zsr/img/cupola.jpg)
Z. SMITH REYNOLDS LIBRARY
Information Literacy
Related Links & Other Resources
Search this blog
User Tools
Pages
- About This Course/Section
- Assignment: 1
- Assignment: 2
- Assignment: 3
- Assignment: Blog Posts
- Assignment: Group Report
- Assignment: Presentations
- Contact Information
- Grading
- Groups
- Helpful Links
- Presentation Ideas
- Schedule
Archives
Categories
- Announcements (1)
- Blog Response Topic (5)
- General (1)
16 Responses to “Blog Discussion Post #4 - Open Access”
Open Access allows scholarly articles/information to be available to any user for research purposes. Open Access is beneficial because it allows users to build upon previous research or to just learn about a topic from anywhere in the world. However, making this information free to the public is probably expensive. As the article indicates, funding for Open Access projects may decrease funding for the research that can be found in the articles via Open Access. I think in terms of academic scholarship in the future, it can only lead to advances in education, giving students more available information, as well as generate new ideas for research and collaborative efforts.
According to the article, open access refers only to free/ unrestricted availability without any further implications. There are two options for open access which are publishing into an open access journal and self archiving. I think that open access is beneficial because of its ability to reach large audience without many restrictions. Open access extends reach of research beyond is immediate academic circle. While there are critics that assert that the pay-for-access model is necessary to ensure that the publisher is adequately compensated for their work, I think that the economic issue helps those that would not be able to afford to access documents on the internet. This advancement will definitely play a large role in the future of academic scholarship, with the ability to do more self taught learning and home access due to the increase in personal internet access.
According to Wikipedia, “Open access (OA) is free, immediate, permanent, full-text, online access, for any user, web-site, to digital scientific and scholarly material, primarily research articles published in peer-reviewed journals.”
I have three thoughts. First, OA has the potential to stratify journals more by devaluing those who comply with OA. Second, OA will allow for findings to become public faster, which is important considering the current delay in publication that exist for many journals. Third, OA will help eliminate the disconnect that currently exist between academia and society. In final analysis, I embrace OA.
I think Open Access will be highly beneficial and helpful for the future of academic scholarship. It will allow all people searching for scholarly articles to find one in a simple and easy-to-use method. I believe finding the right scholarly articles for a paper is one of the most difficult parts of a research paper. All students, because of the modern use of computers, will be able to find scholarly articles easier. They will also know that they are scholarly articles and will not have to worry about distinguishing an article as scientific or popular. A good point in the wikipedia description is that open access allows access to any person with internet and that it is mainly taxpayers’ money that funds the projects to produce these articles. I believe is it good to allow any person to find an article for free because of this. Proquest is an open access site I believe because you have an option to only search for scholarly articles. It is very helpful in writing papers and certainly helps others further their research or stimulate interest in research.
I think open access of information can be a very beneficial method of obtaining information via internet. Open access to this scholarly information has many attributes which lend it to becoming a positive resource. Prior to open access, many scholarly articles required payment as well as special permission to access, which severely limits the amount of people who gain information. Open access to information will eliminate pre-existing limitations to gaining information. Some critics say that open access to information is unnecessary because scholarly articles should be made available only to those belonging to the fields in which the articles are published. I disagree with this notion, because information should not be bounded only to experts of a field. Allowing everyone access to all information will help build more well-rounded and educated individuals.
Open Access appears to be an excellent resource for online researching. The set up allows students, researchers, scientists, etc., to find information easily and in an affordable manner. Open Access is available to everyone and, most importantly, it allows underprivileged and developing universities and laboratories to have access to information that they normally wouldn’t, given the economical expense of other subscription journals. Some may not agree with Open Access having free information, however, the decision to publish a scholarly article in Open Access is made by the authors. Open Access has a great role in academic scholarship, allowing free browsing and approved information.
I think that Open Access is very important to the advancement of further research in that it allows anyone to access the latest acquired information on a particular topic. It is absolutely necessary to examine others’ research in order to gain further insight into current projects. This access allows the researcher to gain knowledge as to what is already known about a particular topic as well as where further research is needed. Open Access is also particularly important to the amateur researcher, such as a university student, required to present on a particular topic of study. Access to the latest peer-reviewed journals and their articles allows the student to gain the most exposure to their topic. There is nothing more frustrating than finding a relevant article to a research topic and not being granted access to learn from this piece due to subscription requirements. Also, I thought the discussion of taxpayers holding much of the responsibility to research funding to be particularly interesting. If taxes account for much of the necessary funding, then it seems only fair to allow Open Access to those individuals.
Open Access seems like the way to go. Since the world is starting to do things more “green” this would fit right in. It’s also easier for researchers to be able to see these articles without having to search through different issues of a journal and even better for those who don’t have subscriptions to these journals. I understand that publishers are going to have a problem with this because they are losing a large amount of money their clients decide to do everything electronically. OA is a great thing and hopefully all journals will take advantage of it.
Open access seems like a great way to obtain information. The information it provides is both scholarly and free, what’s not to like? The only problem that could arise would be loss of money for those who charge for a subscription, but because this information is published with the permission of the author, there would be no copyright issues. Open access is also a positive advancement because it provides recent information. Viewers dont have to wait a certain amount of time to recieve scholarly journal information because Open Access has the lastest articles.
Open Access seems like a great way to make research a more egalitarian pursuit, since even college alumni have difficulty accessing information that they need after graduation. I personally know a Wake alumni who is required to do research for his job in public health, yet does not have access to the journals and other publications that would assist him in finding information. Many high schools with inadequate library facilities could greatly benefit from Open Access to published material. Even individuals in pursuit of knowledge for personal gain would be interested in making this information widely available. The popularity of Wikipedia should prove that everyday people are interested in gathering information on a wide variety of topics. Finally, as the article discussed, Open Access could enhance the quality of education in poor or developing countries.
Open Access is a great way to provide scholarly research on the internet. When researching a topic, it is quite common to question the validity of what you’re looking at, but with open access you never have to doubt whether the a source is legitimate or not. Another plus to open access is that everyone has access to these sources from any location; people can “link, read, download, store, print-off, use, and data-mine the digital content of that article”–pretty much do anything. Every member of society, individuals as well as groups of people and various institutions, would benefit from Open Access. People would be better educated and the quality of work would greatly increase. Also, it is always such a hassle when you are researching and come across important information but cannot access it because you are not a librarian/teacher/etc. However, with open access everyone has access to everything which is only fair and makes life much easier.
I feel that Open Access is the future of scholarly research. It lowers the cost for the researchers, libraries, and consumers. The traditional way is more costly. Researchers don’t have to pay big corporations to edit and print copies of their work. Libraries also can make this information accessible to the public for virtually free and the readers, who pay for these works through tax dollars, may easily access the information. The only loser in this are the big book companies who make their profit off of these costs. I think there can be a compromise, though.
I think that Open Access is a valuable way of distributing information for several reasons. First of all, the more readily available scholarly information is, the younger children can start learning to work with it and getting comfortable/adept at it. Second of all, I appreciate the way Open Access is applicable to so many different levels of research. It also supports the basic idea that all people should have access to information in order to enrich their minds. Whether it comes into effect through a third-grader doing their first real research project, or someone writing a thesis, the vast and varied information on the web is only further complimented by OA.
Open Access may just be a precursor to the future of interpersonal information exchange. The internet, as we all know, has the ability to connect billions of people through simple electronic interaction. Open Access, therefore, utilizes this feature to spread scholarly research and information, to everyone and anyone who would like to find such. This will help with the progression of research in a multitude of fields. There is potential for some opposition, though. As the article reclaims, “commercial journal publishers” base their operation on extracting money from those willing to pay for such information. Also, the authors of these published articles on Open Access may want to be “adequately compensated for their work,” an vague issue when dealing with a completely free database. While it may be a great step forward in the development of information interaction, there are certain obstacles Open Access will have to overcome in order to thrive.
I think open access is definitely the way information dispersal will head in the coming years. In my opinion, there is no reason that academic information should be available on a limited basis for the sole purpose of publishers’ profit. It has been shown that OA databases can be economically viable and in certain instances even profitable, so funding shouldn’t be viewed as a significant obstacle. Those who propose that a publisher is necessary to act as a ‘gatekeeper’ of the information to catalog, organize and maintain a certain level of academic integrity might be right to an extent. Perhaps, there could be OA in conjunction with pay sites, with some file overlap, where researchers could go to the pay site as a guarantee of academic credibility, while still providing access to the general user free. Regardless OA needs to work in with the peer reviewing system. I am a supporter of OA as I believe academic information that can foster learning should be available to anyone with the desire to access it.
To me, open access looks like it will only help the process of research. The coming together of all scholary sources provides anyone researching anything the opportunity to log in and find as many as possible. In today’s research world, it is difficult sometimes to decipher between a scholarly source or one that isn’t scholary. It is also difficult to find scholary sources because you have to sift through all the illegitimate ones to find just one legit source. This site would not only help the process of finding a scholary source, but make it easy. In the future Open Access will make things easier and quicker.