The University of California system recently announced
a new policy that will make all of its research articles free online and
available to the public through its open-access repository, eScholarship. The policy
covers faculty on all 10 UC campuses and allows research from faculty to be
reused or modified for future publications.
The research will still be subject to peer review and
appear in prestigious journals. The question is whether it’s a policy that will
provide too much information for busy professionals, according to Kent
Anderson, CEO/publisher of the Journal of Bone & Joint Surgery Inc.
“Why read information that is pushed to you when you
can Google something that’s right in front of you?” Anderson asked in an
article for SmartPlanet.
“There is a workflow dimension to this, certainly, but also a corrosive problem
of dependence. It’s good for Google, but not great for science, which often
takes reflection, immersion, and inspiration to work. It’s not just a journeyman’s
game, with Google as an occasional toolbox.”