MEDIRATTA: Open Access allows for higher quality education, community - Daily Nebraskan: Opinion

"For far too long now, we have relied on the traditional, subscription-financed journals. Companies such as Reed Elseiver, Springer and John Wiley and Sons account for almost half of the articles published today and because of the inelastic demand for their services coupled with their monopoly on the market, these three for-profit companies charge university libraries exorbitantly high prices. When schools like Harvard have trouble coughing up the 3.75 million dollars for academic subscriptions, perhaps the University of Nebraska-Lincoln library system too should reconsider devoting nearly 80 percent of its budget to online journals. The alternative is Open Access, and it’s a major threat to publishing corporations. In the current publishing system, researchers submit their findings to a publisher. In exchange for publishing in the academic journal, authors forfeit all rights to their work and transfer them to the journal. With this transfer, publishers own the rights to the articles and therefore use these rights as a motivation to charge individuals who want to access the findings. The lack of Open Access hinders human creativity, deprives the public of content they paid for and limits the quality of education. With Open Access, subscription costs are removed. In 2001, the Open Society Foundations convened in Budapest to draft the Budapest Open Access Initiative Declaration, where they came up with a 77-word definition of Open Access. In short, an Open Access publication must have two features: (1) the published content must be freely available on the Web, and (2) readers are free to republish or reuse the content without legal or financial ramifications. This means anyone with Internet access can read and utilize the high-quality research that is being done. Think of how ingrained Wikipedia is in your life. Now imagine the possibilities with Open Access: unlimited access to the most relevant information on any subject matter. There are other motives for supporting Open Access and its principles. With Open Access, readers have full reuse rights, which allows for researchers to build on the findings of others without any restrictions. Under our current system, copyright laws serve as the law of the land and often inhibit scholarly communication. And while there is concern for recognition with looser copyright laws, researchers still receive credit for the work they’ve done with the help of open licensing. Under open licensing, readers and re-publishers are given broad reuse rights with the requirement that recognition is given where it’s due. The ability to reuse and recycle material nurtures innovation and accelerates discovery among researchers. This benefits you, the student, in many ways. With the newest information available, professors can now teach the latest findings in almost any field without any extra cost to you ... A study in 2010 showed that almost 20 percent of the total number published articles in 2008 were available through Open Access sources. A more recent study done for the European Commission reported that more than half of articles published in 2011 were freely accessible online. Additionally, since 1993, almost 2 million articles have been published in Open Access journals, and the number of open access journals has grown to almost 5000.  UNL has also partaken in the national movement for Open Access. In 2009, both the Graduate Student Association and Association of Students of the University of Nebraska passed resolution in support of Open Access. Additionally, UNL Libraries set aside a yearly budget of $125,000 in order to preserve the Digital Commons, an open access digital repository of nearly 54,000 articles, papers, e-books, presentations and master’s theses. We boast the second largest digital repository in the country, and the 13th largest in the world.  As a student, you want to ensure that you’re getting the highest quality education. Supporting Open Access ensures that you have the most relevant and up-to-date information without paying for it twice. If you’re interested in getting involved in the movement, you can start by advocating for the FASTR bill. Fortunately, Rep. Lee Terry is a co-sponsor; however, both Reps. Adrian Smith and Jeff Fortenberry have yet to follow. Consider writing to them! Fight for your rights."