The topic of Open Access was very interesting and relevant to me currently as a student at University. I enjoyed researching open access and looking into why it is needed and the issue of who will cover the costs. From reading other blog posts I was able to gain further insight and knowledge on this topic.
Tom’s post focused on the pros and cons similarly to me. However, he used the music industry as an example to illustrate the problem of plagiarism and giving content away for free. He specifically used the counter arguments of Taylor Swift and U2. This therefore helped me to understand the issues of open access further and how it also affects other industries outside of education. However, when commenting on his post I argued the open access benefits developing countries greatly as helps students get access to journals that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.
Harry’s post had a very strong emphasis on how open access can be very beneficial in developing countries. This will mean that educators and students will have greater access to online articles as there will be no subscriptions. Harry’s info-graphic showed us open access to articles is used massively in developing countries. Therefore when commenting on his post I argued that open access is essential for educators in developing countries meaning that the pros outweigh the cons.
Through researching this topic further, my understanding of open access changed in some ways. I have analyzed and evaluated the advantages and disadvantages open access. However as stated in my own post, although open access is very beneficial to those doing research we cannot dismiss the major problem with the quality of journals. This seems to be a result of more journals being produced to cover costs.
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