Science should be Open Access
Ever since leaving the ivory tower, with its multitude of
subscriptions to scientific publishers, I have been frustrated every
time I want to research something. Half the papers I want to read I
cannot access at all, because the only versions I can find are behind
pay-walls. Furthermore, a significant percentage of the time when I do
get to read a paper, I cannot click through on google's first link,
but instead must creatively search places like citeseer or hunt for
the author's homepage to find the article. Does this seem crazy to
anyone else? I strongly believe that science should be Open Access, and by that, I mean peer-reviewed articles should be
available for download on the web for free. I get that companies like
springer have a staff that need to be paid - but there must be a
better way than effectively blocking access to anyone not at a
university or research institution. Note that when Springer charges
someone (does anyone ever pay?) $34 to read a journal article (that
they might skim the first page of decide is useless) the author sees
none of that money. Academics do not earn royalties when people read
their articles. Since the system is not likely to change anytime soon, there is at
least something simple researchers can do to help in the mean time.
Link to the pdfs of all your articles on your website, and register
your website for indexing by citeseer. Copyright law can stop you
from including a pdf of the final version, but you can generally
include a pdf of a "draft" (e.g., the version after reviewer comments,
but before final formatting). Having your articles freely available
online makes them more likely to be cited by other researchers - yes
even researchers don't like pay-walls. As a grad student I was IM'ed
by friends countless times asking me if I could I download and email
them a pdf, because they were traveling, or on internship, or just at
home on the wrong computer. Having your articles freely available
online will also mean that non-researchers can read them. Now that
won't gain you any citations, and it probably won't help you get
tenure, or whatever your next career goal is, but it may just mean
that something you do will influence a system that people will
actually use. And science after all is meant to benefit society. :) Aside: the computer science community in the US, does on the whole
make a lot of effort to put their papers on their websites. I wish
this was more standard across disciplines, and in other countries.
subscriptions to scientific publishers, I have been frustrated every
time I want to research something. Half the papers I want to read I
cannot access at all, because the only versions I can find are behind
pay-walls. Furthermore, a significant percentage of the time when I do
get to read a paper, I cannot click through on google's first link,
but instead must creatively search places like citeseer or hunt for
the author's homepage to find the article. Does this seem crazy to
anyone else? I strongly believe that science should be Open Access, and by that, I mean peer-reviewed articles should be
available for download on the web for free. I get that companies like
springer have a staff that need to be paid - but there must be a
better way than effectively blocking access to anyone not at a
university or research institution. Note that when Springer charges
someone (does anyone ever pay?) $34 to read a journal article (that
they might skim the first page of decide is useless) the author sees
none of that money. Academics do not earn royalties when people read
their articles. Since the system is not likely to change anytime soon, there is at
least something simple researchers can do to help in the mean time.
Link to the pdfs of all your articles on your website, and register
your website for indexing by citeseer. Copyright law can stop you
from including a pdf of the final version, but you can generally
include a pdf of a "draft" (e.g., the version after reviewer comments,
but before final formatting). Having your articles freely available
online makes them more likely to be cited by other researchers - yes
even researchers don't like pay-walls. As a grad student I was IM'ed
by friends countless times asking me if I could I download and email
them a pdf, because they were traveling, or on internship, or just at
home on the wrong computer. Having your articles freely available
online will also mean that non-researchers can read them. Now that
won't gain you any citations, and it probably won't help you get
tenure, or whatever your next career goal is, but it may just mean
that something you do will influence a system that people will
actually use. And science after all is meant to benefit society. :) Aside: the computer science community in the US, does on the whole
make a lot of effort to put their papers on their websites. I wish
this was more standard across disciplines, and in other countries.
