Wednesday, June 17, 2015

Blog June Post 16 and 17 - Jack Andraka and Open Access

I'm obviously not very good at #blogjune this time round as there appears to be lots of double posts.  Honestly, some evenings I get home and am so tired that I can't think straight enough to do a post - hence the double posts.

Moving on!

Today I read an article in the latest Good Reading magazine about Jack Andraka who invented an inexpensive early detection test for pancreatic cancer when he was only 15.

Now that is pretty amazing and from the article I gathered that he's pretty smart.  But what stood out for me in the Good Reading article was that due to the difficulties he had accessing scientific journal articles during his research for his invention, he has now become an advocate for making information free, or in particular access to scientific journals.

While I was reading the article I was thinking to myself, did he approach his school librarian.  And if he did, would they have been able to help him get access.

I know that most scientific journals are only accessible to those studying/teaching in academic libraries or medical/scientific institutes.  However, searching the internet exposes the general public to these articles, alerting them so they know they exist.  And then the barrier of having to pay to read them presents itself when they try to go further.

Jack argued that in order for people like him to be able to do genuine research these journals should be freely accessible.

I know that there is still a lot of talk about open access and a lot of the journals have moved down that path.  But Jack does have a point.  Why should these journals be restricted to just those that have paid/or are being paid to be in these institutions?  Who should have the say at whether something should be free or not?  Should the institution make a decision to make these journals accessible to those outside the institution or is it back at the publisher/author/creator?

I must admit that I haven't read a lot regarding open access and the likes, so I am opening up the discussion to those in the library/information industry (or not).  What are your thoughts?  Do you think that there would be more research and discoveries if scientific journals became accessible to all?

Today's mantra: Turn your wounds into wisdom
Yesterday's mantra: Girl, you look fit!

1 comment:

  1. One of the things I encourage serious high school students to do is ask me and I'll see if we can find it on the State Library databases which are free. Must admit though I haven't done much searching in the science area.

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