Acesso livre

Abstract

Free and universal access to knowledge is fundamental to science. Although this may sound obvious, as all scientists do their work "standing on the shoulders of giants" (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_newton), scientific publication has become a highly lucrative industry. Since: (i) journals receive, free of cost, the results of research funded by numerous, mostly governmental, agencies; (ii) the quality of published articles is based on peer review, also free; and (iii) the internal procedures and costs of maintaining journals are relatively low, it follows that researchers create value, while commercial scientific publishers generate profits. One particularly perverse aspect of this market is the requirement that copyrights be transferred to the publishers. Publishers then hold the rights to total or partial reproduction of the articles and their prior authorization becomes necessary for any reuse. In other words, even the original authors may have limited use of the material they themselves created. The main argument justifying copyright is that authors need to be protected and therefore encouraged to distribute and develop their work. However, in science, as in culture, this stimulus comes from sharing and debating ideas and from immediate and free access to all such production. The Open Access (OA) publication model is an alternative way of distributing research output, whereby the journal guarantees free, irrevocable, and unrestricted access to the article from the date of its online publication. This inverts the logic of restricted access and facilitates total or partial reproduction as well as the development and distribution of derivative works. The idea is to take full advantage of ever-evolving information and communication technologies in order to expand information sharing and thereby foster scientific development.