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Topic 5 2016, Page 2

Topic 5: Reflection

Having just submitted my dissertation research proposal, topic five couldn’t have come at a more suitable time. The pains of the open access debate to a student at university like me are difficult to ignore as Miss CEO mentioned in her comment on my blog. In my case, I am lucky that when I find restricted articles the university has usually paid for the journal subscription on behalf of students and I have no problem. Continue reading →

A Reflection on Open Access

Last week I wrote about the advantages and disadvantages of Open Access and what it means in terms of Creative Commons licensing and also education. This week I got the opportunity to learn more about open access in different areas. “There can never be enough open access!” Source Hannah wrote about open access in the music industry which I thought was very interesting and gave me the opportunity to have a discussion about streaming music services of which I use. Continue reading →

Topic 5: Reflection

As my dissertation slowly creeps closer and closer, open access is a very current issue for me. Having just completed and submitted my research proposal, I can now speak first hand about how irritating it is to come across an article and then find that if I want to read it i have to pay an outrageous price. I feel that I really put a lot of effort into this weeks post and experimented with several medias to support my claims. Continue reading →

TOPIC 5: Reflection

The Open Access debate is a lot more complicated than I initially thought and spans far wider than just the education sector. Through my interaction with others, I really began to consider the implications for developing countries. For example, Michele had pointed out the link between having free access to research papers for educational use and better employment for developing countries. Continue reading →

Topic 5: Reflecting on Open Access

Although I was aware of high paywall prices to some online content, this topic revealed to me the extent of these increases, preventing knowledge dissemination and blocking advancing research. Open access (OA) widens availability of online information, helping to contribute to medical research and online education; these are of particular benefit in third world countries. Continue reading →

Reflection on Topic 5

I felt that I could fully connect with this week’s topic, as open access (OA) is something I feel quite strongly about. I could tell that other bloggers were similar, such as Richard who took the opportunity to raise awareness and show support by tweeting OA publishers.  @BMCMedicine Check out my blog explaining why I think OA journals such as yours are vital for medical advancement https://t. Continue reading →

Reflecting on Open Access Implications for Content Producers

In my Topic 5 blog, I tried to give a well-rounded and balanced view of the implications for academic content producers making their materials freely available online.  I personally agree with open access, and think the advantages outweigh the disadvantages.  Since then, I’ve been reading other students’ blogs and learning more about it…   Rofini’s blog looked at a completely different angle and focused on music content. Continue reading →

Topic 5: Reflective Summary

This weeks’ topic was, again, a really interesting one. A number of people including Clayton and Agnieszka took the discussion towards Open Access, in particular, Open Education Resources (OER). These discussions were started by the links we were provided and then built upon these. I decided to take my post in a slightly different direction one which was influenced by my experiences of being on this course. Continue reading →

Topic 5. Summary

Source: i.ytimg.com I must admit that I have waited for this topic with interest to see what other people have to say about free/open access and I was not disappointed. I enjoyed reading posts discussing a range of valid arguments for and against making content freely available online. A few students highlighted restricted access as an important factor of persisting inequalities in education and science, including software programming (Tom) and medicine (Shriya). Continue reading →

Open Access

Firstly, what is open access? Here is a video that perfectly explains this concept… Within my own research, mainly for university work, I am always coming across articles that sound perfect to support my opinions. However, I find I can only get partial access to the information or have to pay a hefty fee to access the article at all. To me this is a risky investment because the article may end up being of no use to me resulting in my money wasted. Continue reading →

Open access vs free access to online content

First of all, when talking about open access and free access to online contents, we need to clarify that there is a crucial difference between the two:     “Full open access content is: Easily accessible online Available to anyone free of charge Available for re-use without restriction except that attribution be given to the source No one of these alone qualifies content for an open access label. Continue reading →

Open Access To Online Content

Open Access is an initiative to widen the availability of content, such as information and even entertainment, to a larger audience who might have been previously out of access due to prohibitive costs, through the distributive powers of the Internet. It is an issue that has been increasing in importance as many traditional methods of information and research dissemination, have become increasingly expensive (e.g. Continue reading →

Knowledge is Power but Money Makes the World Go Round

It’s safe to say we all love a freebie!  The internet was initially created to allow universities to easily share academic articles and documents (newsmedia, 2016).  Ultimately it has developed, providing a diverse range of content to the masses. With a larger and more diverse demand  for content comes the question of whether this content should be free and open to all, or only available for a fee. When considering scholarly articles there are two ways of publishing online. Continue reading →

Topic 5: Open Access to Online Content

Throughout the different posts on the blog over the past few weeks, I think I have made clear the benefit that the Web can bring to its users. One such incredibly-important way is through open access to online content. Open access is defined as “availability to all” and refers to the ability for anyone, anywhere to be able to access materials online for free at the point of access. Continue reading →

Open Access: Beauty or the Beast?

‘Open Access is the free, immediate, online availability of research articles coupled with the rights to use these articles fully in the digital environment’ (SPARC, 2016). When it comes to the subject of Open Access content us millennials don’t really know any different – with all too many of us taking it for granted. Continue reading →

Open or Closed?

Imagine writing an essay and having to pay every time to access a journal article or information? Imagine having to pay for it prior to finding out whether it’s relevant or will be used in your essay? Without Open Access this would be the case. Open Access may seem as a hard term to get around but it simply means content that is “digital, online, free of charge, and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions” (Suber, 2015). Continue reading →

“Why should I give everything away for free?”

When I started my dissertation a year ago I couldn’t believe how many articles were not easily accessible to me. Either I would have had to pay to read some articles, or my university had to pay for me and I had to use the VPN. I don’t think that’s right. Education, learning and research is meant to be about sharing ideas and new knowledge to benefit society and the world as a whole. Continue reading →