Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access

Editors _ Ulrich Herb and Joachim Schöpfel

Publisher _ Litwin Books. 2018. 196 p. Paper. $35.00. ISBN: 978-1-63400-029-1

Reviewer _ Samuel Edge, graduate student, School of Library and Information Studies, University of Alabama

Open access is frequently a topic of conversation in library and information studies courses. Usually imbued with hints of social justice, progressivism, and equality, professors and students alike often point to open access as something that librarianship “got right.” On a personal level, while working with document delivery in a large biomedical library, I became an enthusiastic supporter of open access articles and journals that allowed me to save staff time and deliver content to our patrons more expeditiously. After reading Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access, my relationship with open access is no longer quite so simple. Open Divide lays the concept of open access bare, making note of its benefits, but also clearly exposing its flaws, faults, and corruptions.

Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access is composed of seventeen short, critical studies that explore the current situation and varied history of open access in detail, challenging conventional wisdom on the topic and advancing avenues for future growth, modification, and change. Divided into two distinct parts, the text covers both the general background of open access (history, methods, opportunities and challenges, critiques, possible future paths) and the impact open access has had on the Global South, which was originally intended to be one of the main beneficiaries of open access initiatives.

The first part of the book, which explores the overall concept of open access, presents many points that lie in stark contrast to the progressive, egalitarian view of open access that is commonly advanced. The contributors note that the original goal of open access—to level the field of knowledge production and dissemination, thereby creating a global knowledge “community”—has been corrupted by large commercial publishers. These commercial publishers discovered that article processing charges (APCs) levied for processing open access journal content are a viable replacement for the current subscription-based scholarly communication system. In the APC model, instead of being charged to access published work, individuals and institutions are charged to publish the work itself.

This shift towards the commercialization of open access—a drastic change from the concept’s original grassroots beginnings—has other serious consequences as well. Namely, as the prestige and acceptability of open access grows, it runs the risk of becoming steeped with a sense of elitism and superiority, essentially morphing into a dysfunctional replacement for the already broken scholarly communication system. The contributors note that both the exclusivity of and the high registration fees for open access conferences already demonstrate this trend. If the voices that were supposed to benefit most from open access initiatives—such as those in the Global South—cannot afford to participate in the movement, the point is seemingly defeated.

The second part of the book critically examines the effect of open access on the Global South and provides ideas for future development and refinement of the open access paradigm. Although the Global South has benefited from increased access to scholarly literature, the text also points out that audiences in the Global South often face many barriers in accessing any kind of electronic resource. These barriers include a lack of internet connectivity (or lack of consistent internet connectivity), a lack of other necessary equipment, and a lack of the technological skills needed in order to operate the equipment.

The point is also made that in terms of publishing research, the current open access system greatly favors the Global North, whose scholarly work gains even further attention in open access vis-à-vis increased downloads and citations. Such favoring of the Global North leads to a seeming colonization of the knowledge production and dissemination processes, which forces the Global South to accept knowledge from the Global North as the “standard” and as the only knowledge worth knowing. This, of course, comes at the expense of much practical and useful local knowledge and research, which is then pushed to the outermost fringes of knowledge production and dissemination.

Another important distinction discussed in the book is that those in the Global South are not just passive “takers” of information and knowledge. Instead, they are actually very interested in taking open access content—much of which originates in the Global North—and adapting it to fit their local culture. However, as mentioned previously, many barriers are encountered while trying to access this kind of content, which limits the amount of modification in which individuals from the Global South can partake. This kind of modification activity, of course, differs greatly from passive knowledge consumption.

The book also offers some general ideas about reworking open access in order to create something closer to the global knowledge community imagined in the early days of the movement. To this end, it is suggested that other forms of scholarly work become available in open access, such as original research data (open science). The text also stresses that local relevance and importance must be maintained, and that open access must be reworked with the idea of engaging and valuing all, not just those from the Global North.

As a comprehensive introduction to the complex field of open access, Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access would be an excellent text for library and information science (studies) students, practitioners, and educators. Its individual sections could also be utilized in many different educational contexts, and as a whole, it would be a useful textbook or reading assignment for scholarly publishing, open science, or open access themed classes. Although the writing style and grammar can be a bit jarring at times, most of the text is clear and easy to follow and understand. If the concept of open access has ever crossed your mind, Open Divide: Critical Studies on Open Access is worth a look.