Has the internet made it harder for students to access high quality research and journals?

Since the birth of the internet on the 29th of October in 1969 the way we use the internet is ever changing. In the early 2000s, universities started to take advantage of the internet by publishing open access articles and journals for other academics to use. These articles were often free and of the highest quality. Scholarly articles used to only be available in the physical form at university libraries, making it impossible for those who live on the opposite side of the country to access this information.

Now there is the discussion about how we can actually access high quality research as open access articles are getting harder to find. Certain universities have decided to stop providing open access articles to the public. ‘This month, academic publisher Elsevier shuttered the University of California’s online access to current journal articles. It’s the latest move in the high stakes standoff between Elsevier, the world’s largest publisher of scholarly research, and the University of California,’ (Smith, 2019)

This contradicts the view that the internet has made it easier for us to access knowledge easily. The head of the research library at UC Davis stated that ‘I see this development as a harbinger of a tectonic shift in how universities and their faculty share research, build reputations and preserve knowledge in the digital age.’ Before the digital age universities were much more lenient with sharing information and seemed to do it more willingly.

There is also the discussion about charging fees to access these publications. Isn’t the internet meant to supply a multitude of free information? Maybe not when it comes to scholarly articles. ‘We’ve also know that since 2006 that most (75%) conventional or non-open access journals do charge author-side fees, on top of reader-side subscription fees.’(Suber, 2013) Before the internet going to the library and getting out a book was free, whereas now we have to pay fees to even access a journal, this is a massive disadvantage for students.

When looking at access to journals and publications, it is also important to look at how access to them differs from course to course. Something I have noticed from my own experience is that the humanities seem to have less access to journals at university libraries compared to the sciences. This could be due to the fact that separate degrees and courses have different funding allocated to them, or it could be due to stigma, that humanities research is of less importance and relevance.

In South Africa ‘A survey by the country’s National Research Foundation revealed that only 20 of the country’s universities and three of its science councils have Open Access repositories.’ (Kleyn, 2015) Students are once again having to pay to use this research. Is this due to the fact libraries are less popular with students and online publishers feel that they can take advantage of the fact that the internet is a student’s first point of call?

Overall it may be seen that the internet has made it harder for us students to access high quality research articles and journals, due to the ever growing fees, lack of open access articles and certain universities blocking off their knowledge to the greater public. There is still the argument that the in internet has made it easier than ever to gain further knowledge about thousands of topics in the most convenient way to date.

Kleyn, L. (2015). Why it’s getting harder to access free, quality academic research. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/why-its-getting-harder-to-access-free-quality-academic-research-49603 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

Smith, M. (2019). University of California’s showdown with the biggest academic publisher aims to change scholarly publishing for good. [online] The Conversation. Available at: https://theconversation.com/university-of-californias-showdown-with-the-biggest-academic-publisher-aims-to-change-scholarly-publishing-for-good-120323 [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].

Suber, P. (2013). Open access: six myths to put to rest. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/higher-education-network/blog/2013/oct/21/open-access-myths-peter-suber-harvard [Accessed 16 Oct. 2019].