Open Access is the term used to describe a piece of research that has been published with no barriers to access and reuse, typically accompanied with a Creative Commons licence stating what the research can be used for. The term is also used to describe the movement behind it. The idea is that thanks to the advancement of technology it is no longer necessary for publishers to continue with the traditional way of publishing. But before we look at open access in more depth, let’s look at what traditional publishing entails.

The traditional way of publishing

The traditional process for publishing is quite restrictive when compared to open access. An academic would submit their research to a journal. It would then undergo peer-review and may be accepted, accepted after some edits or rejected. During the publication process an academic is expected to cover some of the costs. At the end of the process, the article is published and if anyone wants to access it, they need to have either a subscription to the journal or pay a fee. This entire process makes it very difficult for research to be seen, both by other academics and the public.

For academics, their research is less likely to be seen or cited; people can’t apply the research to their own circumstances; and they are expected to provide editorial and reviewing services for journals with little to no compensation.

For the public, they also can’t apply the knowledge provided from the research due to the paywall. In fact, given that some research is partially or entirely funded from taxpayer money, the public not only pay for the research to be done but also must pay to then look at the results.

All these combined lead to a very unhappy situation. So, when technology advanced, especially when the internet was invented, people started to wonder why keep using the same old process. This was especially relevant given the ease at which publishing online was in comparison to physical copies. Consequently, open access was designed to answer the problems created by traditional publishing and still allow publishers to make a profit. although it wasn’t called that until almost the 21st century.

What started it all

Most major movements start from an origin. For open access, it started with the ambition of a single person. In 1836, Anthony Panizzi, a first assistant librarian at the British Museum, stood in front of a parliamentary select committee and stated his goal to allow all students to have access to the same resources, regardless of wealth.

“ I want a poor student to have the same means of indulging his learned curiosity, of following his rational pursuits, of consulting the same authorities, of fathoming the most intricate inquiry as the richest man in the kingdom, as far as books go, and I contend that the government is bound to give him the most liberal and unlimited assistance in this respect.”
– Anthony Panizzi

At the time this was very ambitious given that the ability to publish and transport was very limited. However, over the next 20 years he was able to make a lot of progress. By 1856 he had become the Keeper of Printed Books and had massively expanded the British Museum’s book collection to over 500,000. This made it the world’s largest library at the time. The only downside being that in order to access this wealth of knowledge one had to go through the British Museum.

It wasn’t until the late 20th century that open access became more feasible. Although it didn’t start out as it is now. In fact, one of the first steps to recognising the benefits of open access was through the preprint archiving site arXiv, which we will take a look at in our next post “The Adventure Begins”.