Advantages and Disadvantages of Open Access to Online Materials Topic 5 #Uosm2008
Iām sure Iām not alone in having spent hours researching an academic essay, searching through online journals when I suddenly find the perfect article on the topic. Jubilation! Only seconds later I discover that my āinstitution does not have access to this resourceā. No! As a student at a top research university my frustration at expecting the university to provide access to all academic resources is perhaps understandable, however, it is true that in today society there does exist an expectation of āfree for allā online material.
Should we presume to have the right access to all online materials? According to global pricing consultancy Simon-Kucher & Partners wonāt continue to enjoy free Open Access Materials for much longer (Lepitak, 2013). Their recently conducted survey has found that in the coming years as much as 90% of online content will find itself behind a paywall (Lepitak, 2013). But is this right, should we have access to all materials? Letās take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of Open Access Materials:
Advantages
Free access to learning. The fundamental idea behind Open Access learning is to enable everyone to access academic article, even those who cannot afford to go to university. With university education fees soaring initiatives such as short-term free Massive Open Online Courses have emerged to give people the opportunity to study further without committing to and paying for further study.
Expanded access to materials and learning. The digitised and open-access nature of such material allows those from all over the world to access the materials. This is especially relevant as evidence shows that this is what is increasingly happening. It enable academics and scholars in low-income countries to access materials they might not otherwise have access to and can help provide researchers with links to the international research community.
Increased readership. Open access can widen the readership of a particular field of study or a specific authorās works. For an academic, choosing to publish their work Open Access as opposite to in a more traditional format might make their work more discoverable and in turn be beneficial for their career.
Scalability and cost. Open Access works can be distributed widely with little or no cost unlike traditional publication methods which use expensive printing and distribution methods.
Speed of circulation. In comparison to published journals online information can be made available more readily ensuring the latest research is always available.
Less expense/easier for students. Online works hugely beneficially financially to students who would otherwise have to buy physical publications ā this is reflected in the fact that most undergraduates exclusively access information online (Gatti, 2012).
Disadvantages
Sustainability. Open Access content may be free to the reader but it isnāt free to produce. According to theĀ Study of Open Access Publishing (2011) any fees of publishing an article through Open Access Journals virtually always fall to the researcher either personally (12% of the time), via a research grant (59% of the time) or through the educational establishment they work for (24% of the time). In times where research funding is often tight, this can discourage authors from publishing their content this way.
Lack of quality. There is a myth that Open Access Journals are intrinsically low in quality compared to paywall journal. However, this has been shown to be untrue – as early as 2004, Thomson Scientific found that in every field of the sciences “there was at least one open access title that ranked at or near the top of its field” in citation impact (Suber, 2013). However, there is the risk that someĀ Open Access materials may be of lower quality due to the argument that some less-reputable sites encourage authors to publish more articles, to gain their publishing fee, which leads to a a negative impact on the quality of the articles (Geib, 2013).
Conclusion
I firmly believe that there are clear educational and societal benefits to Open Access Learning and given that most research is publicly funded I firmly believe that the research should be available to the public at no extra cost. The disadvantages as we have seen are mainly to with production fees authors or institution must pay to the journals, however as Suter (2011) argues while this is the best-known business model for open access journals it is not at all the norm. In fact Suter cites that in 2011 the Directory of Open Access Journals found that more than two-thirds (67%) of all peer-reviewed open access journals charged no fees at all (2011).
With the increasingly important the web plays in the academic profession and student lives I cannot envisage anything but a higher demand for Open Access Materials and great resistance to introduction of pay-based restrictions being added to currently available Open Access Journals. However, that said it looks like we are headed for an age of paid-access online content with 2/3 of media companies predicting the introduction of fees for most of the content available online, so I guess weāll have to wait and see what happens (Lepitak, 2013).
References
Brown, A. (2012).Ā Open access: why academic publishers still add value.Ā Available: http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/nov/22/open-access-research-publishing-academics?CMP=twt_gu. Last accessed 3rd April 2014.
Gatti, R. (2012). Open Access: ‘we no longer need expensive publishing networks’. Available: http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2012/nov/08/open-access-academic-publishing-models Last accessed 3rd April 2014.
Geib, A. (2013), Advantages and Disadvantages of Open Access, [Online], Available: http://www.edanzediting.com/blog/advantages_and_disadvantages_open_access#.U2afUfldWVO [Accessed 3rd May 2014]
Lepitak, S. (2013).Ā 90% of online content to be held behind paywalls in three years media company survey suggests.Ā Available: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/04/12/90-online-content-be-held-behind-paywalls-three-years-media-company-survey-suggests. Last accessed 3rd April 2014.
Shockey, N. and Eisen, J., (2012). Open Access Explained!, [Online], Available:Ā https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L5rVH1KGBCY [Accessed 2nd May 2014]
Study of Open Access Publishing, (2011), Highlights from the SOAP project survey. What Scientists Think about Open Access Publishing, [Online], Available: http://arxiv.org/abs/1101.5260 [Accessed 2nd May 2014]
Suber, P., (2013), Open access: six myths put to rest, [Online], Available: http://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/oct/21/open-access-myths-peter-suber-harvard [Accessed 3rd May 2014]
