Open Access News

It is surprising that lack of access to scientific information is regarded as such as obstacle in a well-funded and respected university in a developed western country. The reasons cited for this are: 1) The high cost associated with maintaining an up to date library of journals in educational and research institutions such as Nottingham University. 2) The huge and growing number of scientific journals that are available. This not only increases the cost of maintaining the library of journals. It also means that searching for a specific paper or topic across all the possible journals it could be in is difficult and time consuming. 3) Copyright claims of printed journals can be restrictive and may stifle the ease with which papers can be distributed amongst the wider community....A survey quoted by Dr Swan estimates that on average across all natural science subjects, research papers receive 50% greater exposure in terms of readers if they are [deposited] in an Open Access repository than if they are published in a traditional journal. This is a conservative estimate. The average increase in exposure for Open Access Physics papers alone is 250%!...The advantages that OA brings to scientists that Dr. Swan described are broad and far reaching. As authors, scientists can vastly increase the circulation of their paper, encouraging feedback and peer view from a broader section of the scientific community. As researchers, scientists can have free and instantaneous access to the material they need, when they need it. As teachers, scientists will have direct access to teaching material and will not have to be concerned with copyright issues associated with duplication of the material. So what are the reasons for not using OA, and why does only 15% of the Indian scientific community currently use it? Several preconceptions about Open Access are shared by community members. In some cases it is feared that submitting a paper to an online repository will be difficult and time consuming. According to Dr. Swan this is not a real concern at all. With only basic computer skills a user may submit an article in only a few minutes. In addition, a survey carried out amongst the scientific community found that an overwhelming percentage of users found the system “very easy” to use....One way that institutions can increase the use of OA is to take the decision out of the hands of individual researchers and make OA publishing compulsory. Dr Swan provided data which showed only a small number of researchers worldwide would actively oppose such a decision by their institute. In Asia, there seemed to be almost no opposition to OA adoption.