Open access: A revolution in scientific publication? Or just a minor amendment of accessibility? (original) (raw)
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From the secrets of nature to public knowledge: The origins of the concept of openness in science
Minerva, 1985
So,important is the princi , that many observers hold it to be an integral compon thos,,.3 In principle, secrecy is universally regarded as the advancèmeni of science. one might assume that a rule so central to modern science should have been a part ofthe tradition from its origins in antiquity. Instead, it developed relatively recently, at least in historical terms. Science in classical Greece developed within the paradigm of competitive public debate, which tended emergence of new technology, new institutions for the promotion of scientific activity, and institutional mechanisns to protect the interests of 322 William Eamon discoverers, did the conception of science as "public knowledge" take fbrm.
Open Access as a Reassertion of the Values of Science
This paper traces the formation and eventual rupture of an implicit agreement between science and commercial publishers resulting in the rise of the open access movement within broader advocacy for a more open science. Open access, it is suggested, can be interpreted as a push from within the academy to restore the communal role of publishing within science, and to establish new publishing arrangements that embed the core values of science. The paper concludes that while systemic change may be slow, open access scientific publishing cannot be dismissed as fad; the alignment between the core values of science and an approach to the dissemination of knowledge that is more communal, ensures the disruptive and restorative power of open access scientific publishing.
Open Access: Restoring scientific communication to its rightful owners
2003
The aim of ESF in publishing this report is to stimulate and encourage a wide and full debate within the scientific community at large at a time of rapid change. Enric Banda ESF Secretary General Contents 2 nd Workshop on the Open Archives Initiative (OAI): Gaining independence with e-prints archives and OAI p. 5 Conclusions p. 7 Bibliography p. 7
Open access. A turning point in scientific publication
International Microbiology, 2010
The birth of Open Access "Open access" is the term used to describe literature that is available to any reader at no cost on the Internet. The copyright owner-usually the author-allows the user to freely read, download, copy, print, distribute, search, link to the full text of the article, crawl it for indexing, convert the reported data to software, or use the article for any other lawful purpose. In open-access journals, authors either retain copyright or are asked to transfer the copyright to the publisher. In both cases, the copyright holder must consent to open access to the articles. The only role of copyright in open-access literature is to give authors control of the integrity of their work and the right to be properly acknowledged and cited [8]. Although open access is a concept that is most often applied to online publication, it is nonetheless compatible with print for those journals that also have a printed version. Open access is free of charge for readers of the online version, but does not exclude priced access to print versions of the same work. It all started in Budapest, on December 1-2, 2001, when leading proponents of a new initiative in scientific and scholarly publication and archiving gathered under the auspices of the Open Society Institute (OSI). The OSI was founded in 1993 by the investor and philanthropist George Soros to serve his foundations, which currently have expanded to more than fifty countries. OSI and the Soros foundations aim "to promote open societies by shaping government policy and supporting education, media, public health and human and women's rights, as well as social, legal, and economic reform." The participants at the Budapest meeting, who had previous experience with the various initiatives discussed by the open-access movement, represented many organizations, scientific disciplines and countries. The objective of that meeting was to join efforts and unite the strategies of the separate initiatives into a plan of action aimed at achieving broader, deeper and more rapid success, and to determine how the resources of the OSI could be used to aid the cause of open access [1]. The primary outcome of the meeting was
Open access and the future of the scientific research article
2006
Open access to the scientific literature remains a controversial area. To adequately summarize the different arguments and opinions on the matter could easily fill an entire book (Willinsky, 2005). In this commentary, we present the perspective of an open access publisher. Since BioMed Central launched its pioneering open access journals in 2000, massive progress has been made toward opening up the scientific literature.
Linguistics and the Human Sciences, 2007
This is a book for everyone who has suddenly needed at short notice to check a reference, who has tried to find that missing quote, or who has needed urgently to get hold of a copy of that latest article that has unfortunately appeared in precisely their own research area just when they were about to submit their own paper-and who then finds: first, that that article is not in their own institution's library and, second, that the journal's sprightly webpage lets them have all kinds of interesting details about the article but will not let them read it, at least not without paying out a hefty per-article buying price or arranging an institutional subscription. This book is then even more for those who have taken the next steps; those who have questioned this state of affairs, have wondered just why their library doesn't appear to subscribe to the journal in question and have asked-only to be informed that, in fact, cuts in subscriptions have been made necessary by dramatic price increases for institutional journal subscriptions. The book is, finally, also for those who have never wondered about these issues at all and who have assumed that the practice of publishing results in scholarly journals was a successful and appropriate solution to the task of distributing knowledge and making their research results known: as Willinsky shows in great detail, actually at present it is not and a substantial rethink concerning the principles of knowledge distribution is urgently required.
Open Access, Open Science, Open Society
Open Access, Open Science, Open Society
Open Access’ main goal is not the subversion of publishers’ role as driving actors in an oligopolistic market characterised by reduced competition and higher prices. OA’s main function is to be found somewhere else, namely in the ability to subvert the power to control science’s governance and its future directions (Open Science), a power that is more often found within the academic institutions rather than outside. By decentralising and opening-up not just the way in which scholarship is published but also the way in which it is assessed, OA removes the barriers that helped turn science into an intellectual oligopoly even before an economic one. The goal of this paper is to demonstrate that Open Access is a key enabler of Open Science, which in turn will lead to a more Open Society. Furthermore, the paper argues that while legislative interventions play an important role in the top-down regulation of Open Access, legislators currently lack an informed and systematic vision on the role of Open Access in science and society. In this historical phase, other complementary forms of intervention (bottom-up) appear much more “informed” and effective. This paper, which intends to set the stage for future research, identifies a few pieces of the puzzle: the relationship between formal and informal norms in the field of Open Science and how these impact on intellectual property rights, the protection of personal data, the assessment of science and the technology employed for the communication of science.
In Open Access's Long Shadow -A view from the Humanities
027.7 Zeitschrift für Bibliothekskultur / Journal for Library Culture, 2019
Historians have been in recent years among the most vocal critics against open access to scientific literature. Discussing the controversies they have triggered in Europe and in the USA, we argue that research on open access should be broadened chronologically and thematically. The first section recalls the very first debate on open access that took place among library professionals at the turn of the XXth century and points similarities with the present situation. The second section reviews the criticisms levelled by humanities disciplines against mandatory regulations on open access. The third section argues that the potential of open access for science democratization and knowledge dissemination may not be taken for granted and need further empirical assessment.