OpEdNews - Article: Open Journals: something good to report

“I am seriously considering ceasing to submit my work to closed journals. Traditional academic journals are "closed" in the sense that access to them is only available to subscribers, or through private research libraries.  Because academic journals are specialized, numerous, and expensive the new ideas in these journals are only available to large-budget institutions and professionals... For this reason it is both important and revolutionary that journals are now becoming "open." Open journals have arrived with the internet. They are driven by the cost-free creation and distribution of content, and the fine-grained cross-indexing that the internet makes possible. Traditional closed journals are trying to migrate to the web but persist in offering content at prices that are affordable only to private institutions. Open journals, being free to everyone, blow this model to pieces... PhysNet (http://de.physnet.net/PhysNet/journals.html) lists about 70 open access journals that focus specifically on physics and related topics worldwide. The Directory of Open Access Journals (http://www.doaj.org) lists over 8,000 free access journals world wide, organized by language and specialty... http://www.researchgate.net ... Today I found myself at the page of PLoS ONE, a publisher of medical research that offers thousands of free, current research articles... The "take-away" point here is that you should log on to one or more of these open journal access sites and enter the topic of your interest. Not only will you be getting information you'll not get through other means, but you'll be supporting a more open form of science and social dialog.”