Abstract
Research of the People, by the People, for the People: Is There an Access Divide?
I hope all of you are in the best of health! As the world is opening up with more positivity and brighter perspectives, we take a look at how the scientific world is shaping up in the present day. It is without a doubt that the scientific community had played a major role in overcoming this never-seen-before pandemic where the whole world came to a standstill. With innumerable information both scientific and non-scientific coming in during the initial days, filtering and peer-reviewing the same was a humongous task. Similarly, the publishers had played an important role in its active dissemination with search repositories providing unrestricted access to all the information related to COVID-19.1, 2 In retrospect, I could not help but ask myself one question. Why only COVID-19? Why unrestricted access to scientific research and knowledge can not be made available to all individuals?
The researchers actively seek funding from government or government-funded agencies or end up funding the research privately, and the readers end up paying for the research via the article/journal subscription. So, the biggest question facing the present-day scientific world is, “Is research getting commercialized?” If so, “Who is making the money—is it the researchers, the readers, the public or is it the facilitators/ publishers?” The publishing world is presently in a split with two publishing giants who are members of the Coalition for Responsible Sharing—American Chemical Society (ACS) and Elsevier up in arms against ResearchGate, a social networking site for Copyright infringement in Germany, with a similar lawsuit still pending in USA.3, 4 However, other publishing giants such as Springer Nature and Wiley-Blackwell have been reaching agreements to allow content to be uploaded through ResearchGate as the social networking site for scientists for wider dissemination of information. 5
At this juncture, we should ask ourselves, who is doing the research and whom is this research done for? And how is it that both end up paying for the research assimilation and distribution.
It is important to know and understand the fair use of open access that refers to the public availability of scientific output (publications and data) created using public funds be made available without payment and re-use restrictions. Some researchers have even decided to make all of their research findings public in real time by keeping open notebooks. 6 Digital technology has provided means of reaching and involving audiences beyond their usual primary dissemination targets to actively involve peers and citizens which would otherwise be dependent on the traditional methods of communications. And then comes “Sci-Hub” and “Library Genesis,” popularly known as LibGen, that have been sued for copyright infringement in India as well, demanding that ISP provider permanently block them in India. 7 So, what becomes of it only time will tell but it is high time we address the elephant in the room.
As part of the member of the society and for a greater good of the community, I would request all my fellow authors and researchers that we should prioritize our research publications in journals providing open access for wider dissemination of knowledge. We have maintained our Journal of Indian Orthodontic Society (JIO) with the help of our sponsors and Indian Orthodontic Society (IOS) as Diamond Open Access which does not have any article processing fee for researchers/authors or subscription amount for readers. We have kept all the scientific literature or data available on our platform open to all and it is our endeavor to keep it like that! Jai Hind Jai IOS!