Regulation of Open Access: Idea, Reality, Future by Aleksandra Suwala :: SSRN

lterrat's bookmarks 2016-10-24

Summary:

"The Open Access movement has been known for years as the idea of freeing the research and making it available to readers free of charge. Nevertheless, it was only in the 1990s as access to the World Wide Web became widely available and online publishing became the norm that the issue gained international recognition and attention from officials and scholars. Ever since the Budapest Open Access Initiative, the Bethesda Statement on Open Access Publishing, and the Berlin Declaration on Open Access, many initiatives have been formed to make Open Access possible. However, most of them are just guidelines or mere intentions resulting in only 20% of total number of peer-reviewed publication being subject to open access.

Without denying the importance of issuing guidelines and creating new Open Access initiatives, this paper aims to argue that Open Access is crucial to bridge the digital divide that occurs between Western societies and developing countries. The Internet gave broad and unique possibilities to millions of people around the world, being a useful tool in numerous spheres of life. Its primary advantage is a rapid spread of information. As the right to the Internet has been proclaimed a human right, it has a particular role to play in promotion of other human rights. Establishing Open Access regulation not only could facilitate access to knowledge, but also balance interests of numerous stakeholders and bring benefits for developing as well as developed countries. This paper intends to argue in support of creation of international uniform regulation that facilitates Open Access to publicly funded research. Moreover, this paper argues that the complexity of the issue and the number of interests involved justify taking up regulatory measures, especially given the fact that the ongoing debates on Open Access still did not bring any significant changes to access to research.

Over the course of this paper, the United States and the European Union regulatory proposals regarding Open Access are analysed as a basis for international regulation.

However, this paper suggests that to fully ensure access to knowledge, no embargo periods in open publishing should be allowed. This paper also aims to stress the importance of publicly funded research, as well as the role of regulation in fostering innovation and economic growth."

Link:

https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2328464

From feeds:

Open Access Tracking Project (OATP) ยป lterrat's bookmarks

Tags:

oa.europe oa.economics_of

Date tagged:

10/24/2016, 19:41

Date published:

10/24/2016, 15:41