Open access (OA) is the practice of providing unrestricted access via the Internet to peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. OA is also increasingly being provided to theses, scholarly monographs and book chapters.[2]en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_access
]Why Open Access?
Funders invest in research in order to accelerate the pace of scientific discovery, encourage innovation, enrich education, and stimulate the economy – to improve the public good. They recognize that broad access to the results of research is an essential component of the research process itself. Research advances only through sharing of results, and the value of an investment in research is only maximized through wide use of its results.Yet, too often, research results are not available to the broadest community of potential users. The Internet provides a new opportunity to bring information to a wider audience at virtually no marginal cost, and allow them to use it in new, innovative ways. This has resulted in a call for new framework to allow research results to be more easily accessed and used—a call for Open Access. availabale online.http://www.sparc.arl.org/openaccess/why-oa.shtm
Who Benefits from Open Access?
“Open access truly expands shared
knowledge across scientific fields — it is the best path for
accelerating multi-disciplinary breakthroughs in research."
— Open
Letter to the US Congress signed by Nobel Prize winners
Researchers- Increases readers’ ability to find use relevant literature
- Increases the visibility, readership and impact of author’s works
- Creates new avenues for discovery in digital environment
- Enhances interdisciplinary research
- Accelerates the pace of research, discovery and innovation
- Contributes to core mission of advancing knowledge
- Democratizes access across all institutions – regardless of size or budget
- Provides previously unattainable access to community colleges, two-year colleges, K-12 and other schools
- Provides access to crucial STEM materials
- Increases competitiveness of academic institutions
- Students
- Enriches the quality of their education
- Ensures access to all that students need to know, rather what they (or their school) can afford
- Contributes to a better-educated workforce
Public
- Provides access to previously unavailable materials relating to health, energy, environment, and other areas of broad interest
- Creates better educated populace
- Encourages support of scientific enterprise and engagement in citizen science
- Leverages return on research investment
- Creates tool to manage research portfolio
- Avoids funding duplicative research
- Creates transparency
Encourages greater interaction with results of funded research available online lhe free exchange of scientific and medical information can play an important role in international development.
- BioMed Central provides free, immediate and permanent online access
to the full text of all articles published within its portfolio of 251
peer-reviewed journals, and through its open access waiver fund, ensures
that scientific authors in low-income countries do not face financial
barriers to publishing in open access journals.
Open access provides a way for researchers from low-income countries to participate more fully in the international research community, and so BioMed Central has created a set of initiatives designed to increase the visibility and output of scientific research from these countries.
The 3rd annual Open Access Africa conference, hosted by BioMed Central, was held at the University of Cape Town, South Africa from 4 - 5 November 2012.
The annual conference aims to bring together researchers, librarians, university administrators, funders and other decision-makers to discuss the benefits of open access to research in an African context, from the perspective of both researchers seeking to globally communicate their work, as well as readers seeking to access information.
The 2012 event is now over. Presentation slides and video of the sessions are available here.
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