Reddit users show their support for SC
January 26th, 2009 by Kaitlin Thaney
A call for support and access to scholarly content rose to the top of Reddit this afternoon. We thank all the Reddit users for showing their support for Science Commons and for Open Access (OA).
Show your support for OA and keep the votes and comments coming. You can also show your support by putting this “Support CC” widget on your web site, blog, etc. And for more information on our Open Access work, visit our Scholar’s Copyright page.
I often run into access problems when I want to read scientific papers that seem interesting and relevant to me.
I’m a college teacher in China. I teach critical thinking, academic writing, and research methods. I must write my own material, while adapting content to a very specific cultural context. Unfortunately, there’s hardly any budget here for books, particularly foreign books (with their out-of-reach prices, even for me), and none for journals. I therefore rely on educational and scientific websites to get updated on new developments, to find examples, or to provide adequate and reliable reading material to my students.
The scientific method is fundamental to open one’s mind, to counter superstitions, prejudice, excesses in politics, in personal choices; to support decisions for a better society, to trigger tolerance, curiosity, the acceptance of differences, to acquire objectivity and a desire for knowledge, and to give to scholars the respect they deserve in a well-balanced community.
To this end, access to scholarly content plays a major role. You have no idea what ignorance can lead to. Please, just think – a minute or two – about the consequences, it’s a start. Thank you so much.
I lead an open source computer algebra project.
The key goal of the project is to unite the research
results with the algorithms using literate programming.
A key blocking factor is the fact that many of the articles
of interest cannot be used because, although the authors
would permit it, they had to sign away their copyright in
order to get published.
Science must be an open and separate subject from the realm of the profiteers. When science gets mixed up with profit-making motives, corruption is inevitable, and the best thought doesn’t happen, only the most profitable thought. That isn’t science. Make science real and open.
This project is Great! Power and knowledge to the people.
I was linked to this site by Reddit, but I’ve been working on my own project along these lines for over a year now. I have not gotten very far with it, but it seems that I’ve found some encouragement here.
Proprietary barriers are antithetical to the science ideal, and so we see a great organizational irony in the diffuse distribution of knowledge in our information-age research situation. The journal-based arrangement can prove highly anti-scientific to anyone who asks ostensibly simple questions. It’s due for a change!
It was an absolutely great video, I put it on my blog.
Keep up the good work. I highlight open science and those promoting open science, on my Curiuos Cat Science Blog.
Your trying to bring the world one step closer to a state whereby knowledge is free and accessible to all who seek it, and you have my respect and admiration because of that.
As a student currently studying the sciences in university, I look forward to the day when scientific literature is available to all WITHOUT EXCEPTION.
I’m a sophomore year Illustration student who found a deep appreciation for evolutionary biology in my high school years. Since being out of science classes, I find it harder and harder to find accessible science resources for self teaching. All of your efforts are deeply appreciated by people like me because the real currency of life is knowledge.
Via reddit.
The post is currently ranked as #20 of all time, with almost 3200 points
http://www.reddit.com/top/?t=all
Almost all scientific research is at least partially funded with public money. That’s one good reason scientific literature should be public. Another good reason is the tremendous benefit to society promised by easier meta-analysis, and lower barriers for people outside academia to implement discoveries or even participate in research.
The only argument in favor of closed scientific literature seems to be as a way to compensate journals for being ‘producers’ of scientific literature. But unlike producers of popular music or films, journals don’t directly support the artists! Moreover, the collapse of publishing costs mean there is no longer a scarcity of publishing bandwidth, which means there is essentially no need for expensive ‘filters’ for scientific literature. Besides, all evidence suggests that collaborative filtering models are superior to peer review. Reddit’s simple voting system is one example; prediction markets are another interesting try.
This is greatest idea I have seen this decade. Kudos!
stop keep the information to your self let it be free. educate your selves and others.
I still don’t see how this site is actually USED. I thought I’d be seeing a site where you could submit your work, categorize/tag it. Submit your database of research to be indexed? Can you do that here?
Someone commented on reddit that you guys spent $300,000 building this, where did you spend all that money? I felt like I’ve read through almost every page available here, other than a bunch of ideals I don’t see anything actually useful.
Maybe I’m missing something.