Humans in Science

As I mentioned a little while ago, October 14th is Open Access Day, and there is a “synchroblogging” initiative underway. The idea is that a number of interconnected bloggers decide on a theme to all discuss on the same day.

While I have no illusions about winning contests, I thought that I’d add my own two cents to the survey of the questions I answer below, as a working scientist. As this catches on, I hope, over the next few years, it would be great to have a greater diversity of responders.

• Why does Open Access matter to you?

Principle and ideals. I fervently think that the more exchange of knowledge takes place, the more benefit to humanity overall. It’s just after midnight, so I’ll make this part brief so I can post, but OA does matter to me. My little brother in high school a quarter way around the globe should be able to read my or my colleagues’ articles should he so desire, since his parents’ tax money paid for it. The public has given many scientists a mandate to make discoveries on their behalf. They are our patrons. They deserve full disclosure of the results of their investment.

• How did you first become aware of it?

In late 2000, I signed (and can’t remember if it was electronic or physical) an open letter supporting OA. My main memory is that Harold Varmus was one of the proponents. I was pleased that someone that high profile would seek to create a very worthwhile vehicle for the OA principle. More history and interesting concerns are available here, but my own memories from eight years ago are fuzzy. I had thought it would only be PLoS Biology through my field-centric lens. But having spin-off journals is a fine idea, although having one major one per science (eg. PLoS Archaeology, PLoS Medicine – yes, I know it exists – PLoS Chemistry) with a really fantastic search system might have been easier.

• Why should scientific and medical research be an open-access resource for the world?

Others will be more eloquent than I am on this question, but knowledge is simply the heritage of all humanity. Anyone who wants to know more should be able to.

I have recently decided that I won’t feel so chicken or modest or whatever, and will make my current and future presentations at different venues publicly accessible on Slideshare. They are under a Creative Commons non-commercial, share-alike license. So what, if I repeat images from one talk to another? They will help disseminate knowledge, perhaps providing accredited images to other instructors preparing their courses, in the way that I benefited tremendously from other peoples’ presentations in the past. This to me is a gesture in the spirit of Open Access – publication of knowledge in a way that anyone with an Internet connection can have access to it.

• What do you do to support Open Access, and what can others do?

When I am looking for journals in which to publish my work, I consider whether they offer gold or green open access option to authors. For journals that reach an equivalent audience, I will pay the extra fee out of my meager research budget, if so necessary (it was for my last article), to ensure that anyone can read it if they so wish. Of course, what I write appears arcane to most outside of my field, but it may not to everyone. If that one researcher in an apparently far-off domain can have access to what they wouldn’t have otherwise because their institution doesn’t subscribe to that journal, why, everyone has won and the money was well-spent.

What can others do? It depends who you are. You can start by reading papers in Open Access journals, if they are relevant to your field. You can heap scorn on those who regularly choose to give their publicly funded work to publishers who will charge an arm and a leg to subscribers and half a torso to non-subscribers. You can get your students to download articles from OA journals from the comfort of their own home, in pyjamas, if that works for them. You can write to an author of an article you found interesting and, in passing, mention that you were glad they chose to publish in an OA journal (or regret troubling them for a reprint because they hadn’t).

Posted on Monday, October 13th, 2008 at 5:19 pm Categorized as:general science, politics

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