The Why, What and Who of Open Access

Read on to find out why open access makes sense for India, despite the roadblocks here.

- Frederick Noronha

The term 'open access' sounds a bit like open source. In a way, it is related. But the two concepts are not to be confused with one another.

Open access (OA) deals with scholarly research, not software. Like open source, its goal is to encourage creativity and productivity, even while ensuring that barriers to access are reduced. Through open access, research outputs are distributed online, free from access charges or similar barriers.

Part of this is a response to the extremely high price of some research journals. So high, that even those who write papers in these journals might not be able to afford their subscriptions. Libraries find some journal prices outrageous. By contrast, OA academic journals are sometimes funded through author fees (article processing charges), by institutions, or by consortia. Given their limited financial resources, researchers and institutions in developing countries are the most likely to benefit from the open access initiative.

Gideon Emcee Christian, a proponent of open access, has pointed to the high costs of international subscriptions for libraries. One survey by McCabe and Snyder revealed that in the field of economics, annual library subscription fees ranged from about US$ 190 to about US$ 1,370. In science and technology, internationally, the average annual library subscription fee was US$ 1,200 in 2000. Many libraries in our parts of the globe find such prices unaffordable.