Open-Access research, a promise not yet realized
July 3, 2012 § 1 Comment
I find the conclusions of this study rather sad. It doesn’t quite come as a shock, true, but it’s depressing nonetheless to read that
23% of all the students have made passive use of online forums, but only 13% have taken an active part in any discussions: 23% followed blogs, but only 9% maintained a blog themselves.
What I find particularly damning is what the report calls “a continuing lack of understanding about the nature of open access”:
Generation Y students felt that putting their own work out openly will bring them no positive benefits, and may even have a negative impact. Equally, doctoral students’ understanding of the intellectual property and copyright environment appears to be a source of confusion, rather than an enabler of innovation.
If GenY researchers have not yet embraced web 2.0 and open-content, how long are we going to have to wait for the promise of the free exchange of scholarly thoughts to be realized on a large scale ? The stranglehold of proprietary information goes beyond copyright law — it’s a culture that we, pre-genY teachers, have so far failed to expose, denounce, and obliterate. Young researchers are learning to protect their work for career purposes — whereas they should be learning about the fun of collaborative research. Our fault, really.
With data still in “walled gardens” it is hard to make a tool or platform that effectively encourages collaborative research…data and social tools must be within one click of eachother to be effective…