Open access and academic research - timesofmalta.com

"Should information be free? This is the current hot topic in the world of academia. There is an increasing demand for research to be accessible by everyone. Funding bodies are being requested to make research easily accessible and available on institutional repositories (IRs). The Open Access (OA) movement has been gaining momentum ever since the European Scientific Council mandated that the European Union, fully or partially funded research, should be available in OA whether by publishing in OA journals or uploading the research on institutional repositories that cater for OA. Several countries took it a step further by implementing national OA policies, which imply that research funded by nationalinstitutions should also be inOA. Countries like the UK andthe Netherlands have seen an impressive increase in universities and institutions adoptingOA policies within their own repositories. In practical terms, what does OA mean? ..."