Open Access Publishing
The Open access publishing is the most powerful weapon of the 21st century that could bridge the knowledge and the information gaps across regions, genders, generations and people of social and economic classes by providing easy and free access to valuable information that could act as a change agent. Access to free and relevant information has the potential to transform the entire generation of people, communities and the society at large. Evolution and penetration of the information and communication technologies could strengthen the open access to momentum by aiding the empowerment of agencies and institutions at the grassroots.
The academic and the scholarly communities are experiencing a fresh breath of energy with the onset of open access platforms due to the easy availability of information at no cost. Students and the researchers of the remote corners of the globe could get g access to the scientifically tested and proven information online was a phenomenon not experienced couple of decades ago.
Decentralization of Information
Information in the subscription based journals is entirely confined to those that have the ability to pay for it; there were acute and drastic inequalities in meeting the rising demands and the pressing needs of the academic and research interests. Advent of the Internet and advancements in the information technologies that could offer information in various global and local languages through instant translations was a real boon that had ever happened to the scholarly community, particularly students and the researchers, who are the avid knowledge mongers.
Scholar’s Clear Mandate for Open Access Mode of Publication
A clear mandate for open access publishing is now becoming more evident than before. When the articles are published under open access policy, it implies that they can be directly accessed, can be read free of cost and can be downloaded, printed, distributed and shared without any limitation. The magnitude of the impact generated by the information published in open access mode is increased manifold. As a consequence, the probability of the research work getting cited is also higher providing much better recognition of the authors among the scientific community. Nevertheless, the original source needs to be cited and linked.
Open access publishing has been successful in unifying all the stakeholders. It could provide unequivocal representation for knowledge exchange and enhanced the scope for adequate representation of geographic, socio-economic and other forms of diversity. This could further boil down to the way we innovate, structure and devise mechanisms that provides equitable solutions and benefits to all the stakeholders. However, there is a need to design and devise effective open systems that meets the needs of diverse global community in an inclusive and equitable manner. Formulation of international, policies, strategies and devising mechanisms for inclusive growth of marginalized communities will be the need of the hour. Open access policy helps conserve the funding resources and maximizes their outcomes and their support as well as participation.