We are all in a tizzy about Open Access. Or, at least, I am | University Affairs

"There is a move afoot to make publicly funded monographs and journals Open Access (OA) – free – through the Internet. This is a revolutionary move that could lead to the vast dissemination of knowledge, a renaissance in scholarship, and help level the playing field between the haves and the have-nots. I’m for it! But in the rush to Open Access there is a push to produce online materials without the expertise of academic publishers. Will these books have the same value as the scholarly monograph that has been selected by experts, peer reviewed, and approved by an academic editorial board? Or will they languish like the thousands of self-published books that appear every week online, lacking editorial input and suffering from bad design? Will they, too, be ignored by book review editors and prize committees because they do not have the imprimatur of a publishing house and all the professionalism that goes with it? And would our most learned citizens be even less able to compete in the marketplace of ideas because of diminished distribution and publicity efforts? If that’s the case, then I’m against it!  ... This spring, U of Regina Press released Free Knowledge: Confronting the Commodification of Human Discovery on our website for free. The first printing of 700 copies has already sold out in the paperback edition for $27.95. With activist and scholarly dimensions, Free Knowledge is on the front lines of debate about creating and protecting our Knowledge Commons. It also contains a warning from Gregory Younging about the ongoing expropriation of Indigenous knowledge – a reminder that this remains a complex issue. More exciting for the OA movement is James Daschuk’s challenge to his colleagues. Within weeks, he will release on uofrpress.ca the 20 years of research that went into writing Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life, a national bestseller. He hopes new ideas flow from his research, with scholars, students, and writers using it to deepen our understanding of Canada’s relationship with the First Nations. This revolutionary move represents a leap forward for OA. Will others in the academy follow his lead? ..."