They say “knowledge is power” but only for those who can afford it. Currently, academic journals can charge upwards of a hundred dollars for a yearly subscription. A great divide is created between those who can and cannot afford this cost for knowledge. This divide will only grow with the price of subscriptions “rising twice as fast as the price of health care over the past 20 years” (Murphy, 2016). One resolution becomes evident: make academic research free. Academic research should be without cost as it would benefit the general public, researchers, and students.
Research articles that are free of charge would benefit the general public in multiple ways, from accessing tax-funded information to fact-checking sensationalized stories from the media. Commonly, academic research is paid out of the public’s own pocket (Murphy). Yet, as Kalev Leetaru (2007) states in, "The Internet Made Information Free: Now it has Come for Academic Research'', journals will publish taxpayer-financed research and then “charge the very taxpayers who funded it in the first place, for access”. This is unethical. People should have access to the studies they paid for. Furthermore, people could resist being swayed by media agendas if they had free access to that research This ability would allow them to educate themselves. In John Oliver’s (2016) YouTube video, "Scientific Studies", Oliver mentions a study that aired on the news, stating that drinking champagne every week may help dementia (2016). However, an important fact was removed, the testing was performed on rats, not humans (Oliver, 2016). If articles were free, people, could look at the actual case study and examine the real data, not the excerpt the media chose to report. COVID-19 is a prime example. Early in the pandemic, some drugs were touted as the cure but were later found to be detrimental to people’s health. Had the general public been able to read the research, they could have discovered this for themselves rather than relying on the media to catch up with the truth. Additionally, it would have proved vital to researchers who were frantically looking for a cure.
Researchers have also faced the dilemma of acquiring information. While they create the research, only those at “well-funded universities actually have full access to the published research” (Murphy,2016). The cost of subscriptions to multiple journals can cost millions for research libraries (Murphy, 2016). Many libraries cannot afford this. By restricting access to scholarly resources, article subscriptions slow down advancements in science (Murphy, 2016). Following the scientific method, a vital step is researching the topic or doing a literature review. If the researcher’s institute is poorly-funded, how will they be able to do a thorough study? Furthermore, not being able to view previous research increases the chance of unnecessary repetition. Researchers might perform an experiment previously done, wasting time and limited resources if they weren’t purposely trying to replicate the study. Free academic research would eliminate these drawbacks, enabling a researcher to do thorough studies in a timely manner, regardless of their affiliated university or institution.
Access to research is not limited to those who have advanced degrees. Students at under-funded universities also experience similar difficulties when finding sources for writing papers. I have struggled with limited access to academic journals when writing a research paper. My university’s library does not have complete access to every academic article, so my data on homelessness in Cleveland is incomplete. Many journals I believed would be useful were not available. As a result, my conclusions are drawn only from the research database that my university has access to. This limitation affects the scope of my study, preventing me from fully representing the selected population. While other students and I could pay for access, it is not a realistic proposal. A single journal article, without a subscription, is around $30. The cost can add up quickly, considering most papers need several sources, and I ultimately may not use the source I paid for. Moreover, it is not efficient to rifle through articles to find the ones I have access to. Time and money are rare commodities for an undergrad. Free access to academic research would allow my limited resources to be spent on other classwork.
Academic research should be free because everyone stands to benefit. Learning continues whether you are in school, on the job, or at home seeking medical advice for your loved ones. We are all taxpayers in one form or another. Nonetheless, arguments against free access exist. Losing the honor of being published in a prestigious journal carries the stigma of less reputable work. Additionally, the article processing charge costs the author extra expenses. However, if all academic research became free, it would eradicate both of these problems. Distinctions in the prestige of journals would cease as they would all be open access. While the article processing charge might still exist, everyone would be required to pay. Ultimately, the benefits of free academic research outweigh the costs. Academic research that is free of charge would level the playing field so all would benefit from unlimited knowledge leading to powerful living.
References
Leetaru, K. (2017, July 31). The internet made information free: Now it has come for academic research. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/07/31/the-internet-made-information-free-now-it-has-come-for-academic-research/
Murphy, K. (2016, March 12). Should all research papers be free? The New York Times. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/13/opinion/sunday/should-all-research-papers-be-free.html
Oliver, John. [LastWeekTonight]. (2016, May 8). Scientific Studies: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO) [Video].Youtube.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Rnq1NpHdmw&t=229s