Paywall: The Business of Scholarship, produced by Jason Schmitt, provides focus on the need for open access to research and science, questions the rationale behind the $25.2 billion a year that flows into for-profit academic publishers, examines the 35-40% profit margin associated with the top academic publisher Elsevier and looks at how that profit margin is often greater than some of the most profitable tech companies like Apple, Facebook and Google. For more information please visit: Paywallthemovie.com
Open Access Empowers 16-year-old Jack Andraka to Create Breakthrough Cancer Diagnostic
Jack Andraka is a perfect example of the power of Open Access, the free availability of all academic research articles online with full reuse rights. Only 16 years old, Jack discovered a breakthrough pancreatic cancer diagnostic using carbon nanotubes. Jack went on to win the 2012 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair. His story would not be possible without Open Access.
On February 22nd, the Obama Administration made Open Access “a priority at the highest level,” by issuing an Executive Directive expanding the NIH policy to require all federal science agencies to make the articles resulting from the research they fund freely available online within 12 months of publication in a journal. This directive is an important step in the right direction.
Jeanne Holm is the Deputy Mayor for Budget and Innovation at the City of Los Angeles, working on issues ranging from homelessness to digital equity technology innovation, data and analytics, fiscal transparency, and public-private partnerships. In the following video, she describes the potential in open data to improve health, education, welfare and safety in the United States. Holm promotes data.gov and accompanying efforts by the federal government to galvanize educators, developers, and international and state governments around open data issues.
This video by Jorge Cham (PhD Comics) featuring Nick Shockey and Jonathan Eisen demystifies the world of open access.