The Continued Importance of Open Access
Why has information become something you have to pay to access?
I’m sure anyone who uses clinical and peer-reviewed research as part of their research-related work knows this story all too well: You find a study that is examining your exact research question, and you go to click on the study to view it, and you’re brought to a page to purchase the article, or are asked to pay a subscription fee to have access to journal articles.
This is what the OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT has been fighting against for years.
Open access is a broad movement that has been moving across the globe that calls for free and open online access to academic information, such as publications and data.
If a publication has no financial, legal, or technical barriers to accessing it, it is considered “open access”, meaning that anyone can access and mobilize the information for educational purposes.
Open access ensures the free, equitable, organized and wide distribution of the output of scholarship and research for the public. It is an example of the democratization of knowledge when information and data becomes freely accessible.
Open access calls a lot into question: Who profits from holding knowledge under a financial gate? What information does the public NOT see when big decisions are made, because the research can’t be accessed? What are the benefits of holding knowledge, vs. mobilizing knowledge for the greater good? Who actually OWNS knowledge?
Research centres, journal publications, and academics all have to make money somehow, and putting a price tag on information is one of them. Major newspapers and publications are starting to do the same – you can’t read articles unless you pay. (HINT: Most Canadian library cards will give you access to most local, national, and international newspapers through your library card).
I’ve been touting the open access flag for a long time now, mostly stemming from my career in academia, where I was a noted advocate for access and mobilization of information. This vigour for the topic hasn’t gone away.
As a qualitative community researcher, I get very frustrated with not being able to read research studies that I know, if I could read them, could benefit the communities my work seeks to benefit and provide great support to the qualitative data I help collect and analyze.
Instead, I have to work around research gates and supplement information by jumping through many hoops to provide “proof”.
You can’t prove something if the information that backs it is under lock and key.
Anne-Marie E. Fischer, BA (Hons), M.Ed., blends her passion for the written word with her vocation to create a better world through effective communications, education, and Community Based Research (CBR).
Words for Impact is the culmination of Anne-Marie’s passions, talents, training, experience, and education. This unique company offers grant and proposal writing, research studies, research reports, impact reports, content development, brand development, communications consulting, biography/autobiography (ghost)writing, education and training materials, curriculum development, podcast script writing, journalistic articles, press releases, developmental editing, in-line editing, and fact-checking.
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Learn more about Words for Impact’s services here and past Impact Projects that Anne-Marie has been involved in here. Dedicated to helping you find the right words for the things that matter.