The Robin Hood of academics - open access publishing debate series | Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

"In 'Open Access and the future of academic publishing', the second installment of a three part debate series on copyright and the modern academic, Glen Rollan and Michale Geist attacked the highly controversial academic subject of open access publication. Once upon a time, open access - defined here as free and accessible sources for the masses - was the dominant means of publication. Since then however, academic sources have become harder for authors to publish and in turn, harder for the average reader to access. In the last few years, there has been an on-going struggle to bring back open access once again! A sort of Robin Hood movement in the academic world, I suppose. Gallantly bringing knowledge and learning to those who can't afford to access it themselves. As a freshly graduated Honours student AND an individual with aspirations to get into the publishing world, I am well acquainted with the struggles in finding open access sources for my research projects and also interested in my future as a publisher. So needless to say, I was eager to hear what these gentlemen thought of the fate of academic resources for new students in the years to come. The question for debate was this: 'Should open access be the primary model for Canadian academic and research publishing?' In the ring today we had two champions battling for their competing answers; Michael Geist versus Glen Rollans in a battle for the ages ..."