Open Access Explained!

What is open access? Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen take us through the world of open access publishing and explain just what it's all about. Make sure to watch it in HD and Fullscreen!

CREDITS
Animation by Jorge Cham
Narration by Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen
Transcription by Noel Dilworth
Produced in partnership with the Right to Research Coalition, the Scholarly Publishing and Resources Coalition and the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students

[JoelAdamson]

Thanks for posting this, Jorge. If anybody doubts the problems people face in access to research, hear this: my labmate said that when he was in India, he had to take a 1.5day train ride to Bangalore and stay overnight in a hotel just to use the library at the Indian Institute of Science. Open Access is pretty important to him.

[StephanCarlsonNYC]

I recall being an undergraduate student and later a resident and unable to access research articles that I wanted to read. I just accepted the status quo. I am thankful for the open access movement for changing that!

[timonix]

I recently realized how much information there is when I was shown how too access my university librarys database subscriptions. There are so much that noone outside of the academic world will ever see. Or even CAN see without paying alot of money

[pierrotclowns]

I despise that we the people don't have access to these documents.
RIP Aaron Swartz.

[MattHenshaw]

Unbelievable. The costs of education and the self-perpetuating system inherent is ridiculous. Tools such as blogs, Wikipedia and most impressively Khan Academy should be utilised properly and widespread ... it's just a start but when people begin to realise to power of free access to knowledge and open source economics we can build a better future for sure !!

[alib]

I loved this video!!! I get so frustrated being a university student paying for school and for my books etc... and even online textbooks are over 500+$ for something that isn't even printed on PAPER.... Information should be free to access

[aliciagibb]

Thank you for creating this video! It addresses the problems head on for people who aren't aware of the problems in research publishing today. Like a PSA for the good of science!!

[LeFerret]

As a Chemist, this video made me worried, specially because I never got to know the prices for the subscriptions (the University pays it), Where did you see that Tetrahedron subscription is $40k?

[NippleClampSC]

This already exists for physics: arxiv.org

People in the fields represented there still submit to journals (most of the time) but the arxiv version is often more up-to-date than the published version (that most people don't read anyway).

[GYANAQ]

Open Access (OA) movement/OA is a movement that makes online publications immediately available free of charge and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.

[StudierenDigital]

hey, i wanted to add german subtitles and create a video remix, but unfortunately there is a copyright claim unsolved? (if you click on "create a remix for this video")

Would be great if you can solve this, than I can create a remix which references this original video. :)

Best regards,
Matthias

[Bored-Kim]

I couldn't agree more, accessible research and education is absolutely vital to moving societies around the globe to a better future. Thank you for publishing a video that makes it easier to understand

[ReplicationBubble]

This is a really good overview of Open Access. One issue that isn't raised is that in many cases Open Access puts the cost of publishing on the scientists producing the work. While in some cases grants or universities can cover this, at universities with less resources they may be restricted by budget to publishing in a traditional journal. The knock on effect is that richer universities could make their content more available and read than others; a problem for low/middle income countries.

[laurencelewin]

An excellent film that makes a lot of sense. I fully agree. I appreciate the referral to this video by Coursera and the University of Leiden.

[s]

Fair point. I typically do not report my impact factors on my annual evaluations but I do report my citations. Having said that, I have been told quite candidly by admins in the past that there was a hard line base impact factor that I had to meet for purposes of P&T. So, while I agree the citations are more relevant, those making the decisions don't necessarily see it that way.

[guthriegordon]

My first journal article was just accepted for publication. Open Access caught me off guard, because the publisher is asking me to pay $3000 for it!

[gretisma]

Absolutely incredible graphics and explenation, thank you so much!

[stevechristenson]

I think this is a fantastic video explaining why we need Open Access within the scientific community. What this doesn't tell me is how to publish in an open access journal, where I could publish, what I can publish, or if any of my past research published in non-open access journals could be published in an open access format.

Does anyone know any resources that would be helpful for answering those questions?

[dipy]

Totally agree. About time too that someone said these things aloud

[timryan]

Really well done! There's a newer video from Wiley (search "RCUK Open Access") that explains the RCUK Open Acess mandates. Especially good for researchers.