The Koyal Group InfoMag News about Open Access on ScienceOpen

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The Koyal Group InfoMag News
Open access is revolutionizing science, and it's
a growing research market online
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More and more scientists are publishing their
results online. And as a result, it's becoming
easier to link to new knowledge. A Berlin-based
platform called ScienceOpen wants to tap into
that.   "It's really important for me that
everyone gets immediate access to the wonderful
work that scientists do," says Stephanie Dawson.
The Yale-educated biologist is the managing
director for ScienceOpen, a research platform
that went live this week.   "Access to this
research is like a human right," Dawson told DW.
"After all, it's all research funded with
taxpayers' money."   But it's not only about who
pays - it's also about what gets done with the
research, and who is allowed to work with it.  
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Then there are the traditional publishers of
science research. They criticize online open
access journals and portals for lacking editorial
quality control.   It hasn't stopped the trend
towards open access in Europe, though.   Lateral
thinking   The science historian Professor Jürgen
Renn has been an advocate of open access for some
time.   Renn, who is director of science history
at the Max-Planck-Institute, says the only way to
achieve groundbreaking insights is through a
permanent exchange of ideas between scientists -
wherever they are in the world.  
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"There should be no artificial barriers stopping
you from getting from one article to another,"
says Renn. "We should all be allowed to surf
freely in knowledge!"   It would certainly make
it easier to do interdisciplinary work. Renn says
Darwin and Einstein mastered that approach with
their respective theories of evolution and
relativity.   "Both of them spotted connections
which other scientists - with their specialist's
view - may have missed."   He says it's all about
"findability and linkability."