Open Access - Snippet No. 2

Visibility

Without Open Access, the only way to see academic work is by paying for subscriptions to journals or by paying a fee to view an article.

This has the effect of restricting access to all bet the minority who can afford to pay for access.

In a survey conducted at the beginning of the millennium more than half research-based institutions in lower-income countries had no subscriptions to international research journal.

Unsurprisingly, researchers in those countries rank access to research literature as one of their most pressing problems.

In other surveys it was found that also in the wealthier world, researchers find increasingly difficult to access the material they need.

Swan, Alma (2011) Open Access: Impact for researchers, universities and society. RLUK.