Make it Free to Read

A Research Outcome
The Open Access movement has convincingly transformed my awareness and thinking about the Internet as a vital public knowledge space.  At the outset of my research, I was primarily interested in the increased gating of content with subscription fees on the one hand and the growing global demand for freely accessed information on the other, as the success of Wikipedia suggests.  I set out to investigate the success of Wikipedia, assessing its quality, and identifying ways of using the site as an information literacy tool.

Yet when Climategate undermined traditional peer-reviewed processes of authority and the issue of Open Access to public research as a concerted movement in academic publishing and governmental transparency gained coverage in the media, my research concern evolved into information or knowledge space as a public good.  I support the Open Access mandate for a public knowledge space for government transparency and authoritative research as a vital public good.

In Support of Open Access

The case became evident to me as a summative experience of researching the various threads in my blog posts:

1. investigating open access content such as Wikipedia and learning of its improving reliability with use.
2. Lisbet Rausing's The New Republic article, "Towards a New Alexandria" on opening up scholarship locked in libraries in order to maintain relevance.
3. news of Climategate demonstrating what can go wrong with traditional peer-reviewed methods of authority when a few scientists take control of data and keep it from the public.

Prior to my research, I was unaware of the Open Access movement in academia, so I was interested to interview a SJSU librarian and learn that the University has made considerable progress towards Open Access.  The SJSU Academic Senate approved the Sense of the Senate Resolution in support of Open Access for scholarly works and research on April 19, 2010.

Alliance for Taxpayer Access

One of the primary supporters of the bill is the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.  They are a non-profit coalition of libraries working to create a more open system for the exchange of scholarly research results. According to their website, they are committed to the following four principles: 

1. American taxpayers are entitled to open access on the Internet to the peer-reviewed scientific articles on research funded by the U.S. Government.
2. Widespread access to the information contained in these articles is an essential, inseparable component of our nation's investment in science.
3. This and other scientific information should be shared in cost-effective ways that take advantage of the Internet, stimulate further discovery and innovation, and advance the translation of this knowledge into public benefits.
4. Enhanced access to and expanded sharing of information will lead to usage by millions of scientists, professionals, and individuals, and will deliver an accelerated return on the taxpayers' investment.

Even more, there is now real momentum in Washington to make Open Access a law to conform to the Obamba administration's call for government transparency and increased Internet access.
The following is an excerpt from Alliance's April 15, 2010 press release:   

Congress takes another stride toward public access to research

Federal Research Public Access Act introduced in the House of Representatives

Washington, DC – Fueling the growing momentum toward openness, transparency, and accessibility to publicly funded information, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010 (FRPAA) has been introduced today in the U.S. House of Representatives by Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) and a bi-partisan host of co-sponsors. The proposed bill would build on the success of the first U.S. mandate for public access to the published results of publicly funded research at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and require federal agencies with annual extramural research budgets of $100 million or more to provide the public with online access to research manuscripts stemming from funded research no later than six months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.

. . .

Like the Senate bill introduced in 2009 by Senators Lieberman (I-CT) and Cornyn (R-TX), H.R. 5037 would unlock unclassified research funded by agencies including: Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of Health and Human Services, Department of Homeland Security, Department of Transportation, Environmental Protection Agency, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the National Science Foundation.

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