[GOAL] Why sustainable open access needs multiple copies of works in different regions

[Heather Morrison]

Given recent political upheaval in the U.S. and elsewhere, this might be a good time to consider the argument that to be sustainable, OA needs multiple copies of works (documents and archives) in different regions.

Relying on one copy in one country risks political interference that could result in global loss of access.

Consider PubMedCentral. A single PMC, based in the U.S., is dependent on funding and political will in the U.S. A second copy, shared by the UK and the EU, could face funding and political support challenges in the context of Brexit. A third copy, PMC Canada, could be vulnerable to politics in the US.

If we had at least one copy of the entire service (indexing and documents) in each of the Arab world, in Africa, in Asia, or even better, at least one copy in every country, potential global targeted loss of access to our collective medical  knowledge for political reasons, or as an artefact of loss of communication due to war or environmental disaster, would be much less. I argue that making it harder to cut off access would make it less tempting to try.

Just some thoughts - any other suggestions on how to support scholarship per se and open access in the current political environment?

best,

--
Dr. Heather Morrison
Assistant Professor
École des sciences de l'information / School of Information Studies
University of Ottawa
Desmarais 111-02
613-562-5800 ext. 7634
Sustaining the Knowledge Commons: Open Access Scholarship
http://sustainingknowledgecommons.org/
http://www.sis.uottawa.ca/faculty/hmorrison.html
Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca<mailto:Heather.Morrison at uottawa.ca>


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