There’s more than STEM research | mndaily.com - The Minnesota Daily

"For those in higher education, research can feel like something they own. It becomes a calling card, central to one’s career. With the new trend of open access gaining ground, research accessibility can be a tricky issue in academic politics. If research isn’t open access, one can request access from academics, but this isn’t dependable. This sort of access is piecemeal and asks a lot out of other academics. Even when work is published in large academic journals, it is still regulated and closed off from the general public. Arising out of this quagmire is a serious and ethically complicated question: Does the public deserve access to academic research? On one hand, higher education and the academy exist to serve the greater community. On the other hand, researchers dedicate a lot of time and energy to work that rightly warrants value. So, who is more deserving? When it comes to federally funded research, the greater community is more deserving. Or, so Congress seems to think. Earlier this year, Congress oversaw the introduction of the Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act. This bill, FASTR, would make federally funded research freely available online to the greater public. As Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., the bill sponsor, explained, 'The FASTR act provides that access because taxpayer-funded research should never be hidden behind a paywall.' I certainly agree with Wyden. It seems only reasonable that research funded by taxpayer dollars should be available to the public. Unfortunately, I don’t think FASTR goes far enough. The issue of open access is a prickly one for some researchers. FASTR fails to adequately include humanities and social science research. The primary focus of the bill is on STEM-related (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) research. This shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone, as our country is obsessed with STEM at the moment. The focus is not just in title, as the act focuses on agencies with large expenditures — more than $100 million — that overwhelmingly include STEM-related research institutions. However, STEM fields aren’t the only fields that conduct federally funded research. It doesn’t matter what field a researcher is in. If research is conducted with federal funding, it would need to be open and free to the public within six months of publication. But, open access is part of a larger problem within higher education. I suppose it has to do with how we want to see universities and higher learning institutions. To me, it seems reckless and disingenuous to not make available research to the greater community. This includes humanities and social science research. State universities are expressly culpable, especially land-grant institutions. Land-grant universities were founded with the express goal of serving the community in which they exist. This includes land-grant employees as well. Research in any college should be available to the community in which it was conducted. Otherwise, what’s the point? ..."