There is a wealth of knowledge that exists in the huge array of academic articles that are being produced. Still, the discovery process and dissemination of knowledge is not as fast as it potentially could be.
The issue lies in the paywalls. In order to read the huge majority of these articles, one would need to have university access or else pay the often substantial fee.
Martin Paul Eve, a lecturer at the University of Lincoln’s School of English & Journalism in the United Kingdom, sat down with The Atlantic recently to discuss this issue that he has delved into in his book entitled Open Access and the Humanities: Contexts, Controversies, and the Future.
Here at The Electrochemical Society, we are beginning our bold move toward open access publication in order to speed up and make more efficient the dissemination of scientific research. Still, the issue of paywalls in academic research exists and often time impedes on progress.
“We designed a system to free academics from the market. We then came up with a model for research dissemination that entailed selling work,” said Eve in his interview with The Atlantic.
“The cost of subscribing to journals has risen by 300 percent above inflation since 1986 while academic library budges have only risen 79 percent,” said Eve.
Eve not only argues that academic articles and books should be free, but that they should be available for republication by anyone, or even available for partial use.
Find out more about ECS’s move toward open access and head over to our Digital Library, where you can find a vast array of OA scientific research articles.
