Harvard University’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences has adopted a policy that requires faculty members to allow the university to make their scholarly articles available free online, making it the first U.S. university to do so (hat tip: Mathew Ingram).
Harvard Faculty Adopts Open Access Requirement
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Brilliant idea!
What a bonus for those doing research. I recall the old days when one trucked into the University library, accessed a list of potentially pertinent articles, opened them up on microfiche, and copied them if we wanted to read them at home. This involved transportation costs, as well as time factors.
Currently, with electronic resources and huge search engines, is is fairly simple to find articles for literature reviews. The problem is that while scholars are not paid for their intellectual property, publishers charge from $15 to $39 to access individual copies if one does not subscribe to a particular journal (which can run $100 – $400 a year).
The work makes money for the publisher, but nothing for the authors, and costs students and researchers a great deal of money. I hope this precedent spreads. We need to share information, not hoard it or make it available to only those who can afford it.