The Access Principle: The Case for Open Access to Research and Scholarship (Digital Libraries and Electronic Publishing Series) Book

Winner of the 2006 Distinguished Book Award sponsored by the international journal Computers and Composition and Received the 2006 Blackwell Scholarship Award presented by the American Library Association (ALA) Questions about access to scholarship go back farther than recent debates over subscription prices, rights, and electronic archives suggest. The great libraries of the pastâ??from the fabled collection at Alexandria to the early public libraries of nineteenth-century Americaâ??stood as arguments for increasing access. In The Access Principle, John Willinsky describes the latest chapter in this ongoing storyâ??online open access publishing by scholarly journalsâ??and makes a case for open access as a public good. A commitment to scholarly work, writes Willinsky, carries with it a responsibility to circulate that work as widely as possible: this is the access principle. In the digital age, that responsibility includes exploring new publishing technologies and economic models to improve access to scholarly work. Wide circulation adds value to published work; it is a significant aspect of its claim to be knowledge. The right to know and the right to be known are inextricably mixed. Open access, argues Willinsky, can benefit both a researcher-author working at the best-equipped lab at a leading research university and a teacher struggling to find resources in an impoverished high school. Willinsky describes different types of accessâ??the New England Journal of Medicine, for example, grants open access to issues six months after initial publication, and First Monday forgoes a print edition and makes its contents immediately accessible at no cost. He discusses the contradictions of copyright law, the reading of research, and the economic viability of open access. He also considers broader themes of public access to knowledge, human rights issues, lessons from publishing history, and "epistemological vanities." The debate over open access, writes Willinsky, raises crucial questions about the place of scholarly work in a larger worldâ??and about the future of knowledge.Read More