The JP Allen Blog

When I started creating my new ‘Papers‘ page, I had a dream of making all my academic work easily accessible–a ‘live CV’ with each paper just one click away.  I didn’t realize how much of my life’s work is locked inside publisher databases.

Out of 39 papers, I was able to link to the actual, published paper on the web twice.  I found links to early drafts or versions of the paper in five other cases.  Google Books has part or all of four other publications, and a copy of another paper in its cache.  The rest are either paid access only, or don’t exist as far as the web is concerned.  Prices ranged from $20 to $43 US per article.

Not only is some kind of open access the ‘right thing to do’, it helps work get cited more often–from 45 to 500% more often, according to MIT’s open access policy FAQ.  I’ll be proposing that USF adopt a similar open access policy for scholarly works and course syllabi, with the ability to opt-out no questions asked.  But it’s important for the default to be open, as the NIH found out when they started their open access policy in 2008.  Sharing shot up from 4 to about 60%.

I do love the citations feature on Google Scholar though, and I’ve added that to the page.  It’s a lifesaver for those of us without ISI/Web of Knowledge access.

Thanks to a recent discussion on slashdot, I learned that the entire editorial boards from at least three journals have resigned to start new journals that are open, or lower cost:

• Journal of Algorithms
• Topology
• K-Theory

Perhaps others would like to follow their lead?

I’m tired of out of date, expensive textbooks.

I’m tired of fighting copyright fair use battles.

I’m tired of students being trapped in my class, when other students and teachers around the world are grappling with exactly the same issues.

I want easier ways to share the useful parts of my classes with the world.

So I’ve signed the Cape Town Declaration on Open Education. By signing it, I’ve promised to use and improve openly available education resources. I have to release my own teaching materials openly. And I have to encourage USF to adopt policies encouraging open education.

I believe that university teaching is ripe for change. There haven’t yet been any great successes (that I know of) among the projects to create wikipedia-like textbook replacements. It will take a robust online community to make it happen. But once a successful model appears that shows the benefits of a common, open education resource for academic area X, other areas will quickly follow.

I look forward to the day where everything in my class – readings, students assignments, discussions, and projects – is a URL pointing to an open resource.

More on the Open Education movement:

SF Chronicle Editorial – Bringing open resources to textbooks and teaching.

OpEd on Open Content from the ISKME foundation.

Open Education Resources: OERCommons.

Connexions Repository (Business).