#UOSM2008 Reflective Summary: Topic 5
Picture source: http://library.uncc.edu/openaccess
So, it is time for a summary and will be honest, this time I was quite hesitating on my decision. I havenât even provided a small summary at the end of my main post this week, as I usually do. However, thanks for my classmatesâ comments, blog posts I have read, and the additional articles researched during the second week, I have come to the point where I support the idea of Open Access (OA) and here are some notes in support of my opinion, both provided for personal research and classmatesâ:
- As a student, not using such a great amount of knowledge available with one mouse click is just isnât right, especially when we pay for it. As Jazzmin Curzon has mentioned, it will âadd significant value to the educational processâ.
- As was mentioned both by me and Laura Higgins, most of the scientific and medical research is paid by public funds, so shouldnât tax payers see the results of these researches?
- For an author, reusing of the articles and jounalsincreases the popularity of that work and subsequently you recieve more citations (Evie Bool).
- Scale, Cost and Speed. I decided to merge this three performance factors nicely provided by Francesca Gerard, as you can reach a great number of readers in little or no cost and at a speed that allows your current Internet.
And to summarize, there is one word left to be said. Iâm not saying that the articles and journals should be completely FREE. Obviously there is some kind of payment that supports the day-to-day functionality of the journals itself, and âyesâ, there are a few disadvantages of the open source, such as not centralized system of storage for articles or lack of trust to a specific source because of its variety online. HOWEVER, arenât we, either students or ordinary people, those who pay for this kind of researches, either via our tuition fees or taxes? Arenât we those for whom these researches are performed? And isnât these researches targeting the goal to make human life easier to some extend? If the answer for these questions are âYesâ, then I Do believe that we have right to access the knowledge broadly available nowadays.
âWhy canât we do it in a way where the knowledge is distributed broadly and not restrictedâ (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=L5rVH1KGBCY)
