Introduction
- Improve access to scholarly literature and the information it contains.
- Currently most scholarly literature is closed-access, and is available only to scholars and scientists whose institutions can afford to pay for it.
- Rising acquisition costs have led to a burden on the acquisition budgets of scholarly libraries resulting in a deterioration of the literature supply.
- Journal literature has been particularly - although not exclusively - affected.
- This development is known as the “serials crisis”
- Currently most scholarly literature is closed-access, and is available only to scholars and scientists whose institutions can afford to pay for it.
- Leverages the power of the Internet
- Increases visibility and impact of research and scholarship
- Creates new avenues of discovery
- Democratizes access - regardless of Institutional size or budget
- Increases visibility and impact of research and scholarship
- Most importantly OA advances knowledge and education
- Enhances interdisciplinary research
- Accelerates the pace of research, discovery and innovation
- Enriches the quality of education
- Ensure access to more of what students need to know, rather what they (or the institution) can afford
- Enhances interdisciplinary research