Why the heck aren’t research papers free? | Practical Data Management for Bug Counters

" ... In fact, the majority of scientists I know tend to agree. They want their work to be readable to the most people possible. If someone is as interested as me in how overwintering soybean aphid eggs acquire heat from sunlight due to their coloration and placement on the plant good lord I don’t want anything to stand in their way because this person will, very likely, be my new best friend. But things do stand in the way (yup, my article above is paywalled  ETA: hey cool! looks like the embargo period is over! read all about my cool model, everyone!!), and it doesn’t just make scientists lonelier people.2 It keeps the science out of the hands of the farmers who may be looking to my research to figure out if she has to worry about soybean aphids next season. It keeps science out of the hands of the policy maker that is writing regulations and guidelines about how to deal with invasive species. It keeps it out of the hands of the scientists in developing countries that are trying to crack a similar problem in their landscapes with resources much more limited than what we’re privileged to have here in North America. It wastes time. It wastes brain power. Not having open access to scientific research hurts us. It hurts people. Many have been screaming it from the rooftops. The problem is many, many papers are ‘protected’ under copyright, and these copyrights are enforced by for-profit publishers. The law is, unfortunately on their side (at least in the US), which means they can, and do take vindictive action against those seen to be in violation of the law. The long-term solution is that these laws need to change- they need to change so they protect the interests of science, scientists, and humanity. Not large corporate publishing houses. Why haven’t scientists all gotten together to take a stand? Well, they have. We have. Scientists are increasingly choosing to publish their work in open access venues.3 This is good. This is important. But there is still a heck of a lot of human knowledge still going into closed venues. The reason? Costs. Costs, measured in money, time and professional prestige. This is how they get us, this is how they persist ..."