A delightful irony of open access: the poor, it seems, can afford,
what the rich cannot.
The Latin American countries have long been leaders on the gold road,
with their Scielo project. The Indian Institute of Sciences is one
of the leaders in the green road, with a relatively institutional
repository. Either approach, some people seem to think, could not be
followed in places like the U.K. or the U.S. without some sort of
disaster befalling the scholarly publishing industry.
Finally, for a while at least, people in the poorer countries have an
opportunity to catch up. The OA impact advantage may only be
temporary, until all scholarly knowledge is OA. In the meantime, if
the researchers in place like Chile and India have a bit of an access
edge, this has its upside as well.
Unlike the OA impact advantage studies, this is not based on any
scientific evidence at all. This is purely whimsical speculation,
brought to you by:
Heather Morrison
http://poeticeconomics.blogspot.com
Originally posted to the SPARC Open Access Forum, October 4, 2005
This post reflects my personal opinion only and does not represent the opinions or policy of the BC Electronic Library Network or the Simon Fraser University Library.
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