Perhaps the greatest singular evolutionary advantage that humans posses is the ability to communicate acquired information not only with those in close proximity but over great distances and even across time through the writings of our ancestors. This is particularly true in the fields of science and technology where it is through the study and appreciation of the works of others that progress is made; “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.” [Sir Issac Newton in a letter to Robert Hooke, February 5, 1675].
This tradition of sharing and exchanging ideas was instrumental in the development of Quantum Theory during the early part of the twentieth century, which underpins much of contemporary physical science and electronic engineering. This example also demonstrates the importance of multi-national communication, enabling scientists to discuss ideas across political borders. This scholarly tradition of openness continues even today with forums such as this where the fruits of ones research is openly disseminated, debated and dissected in public, and allows others in all stages of their careers, and independent of ones ideology to start from a level playing field rather than play catch-up to the countries that have in the past expended more energy to understand and push ahead in sciences and technologies that are significant and crucial for the well being of humans in the present and the future. Yet, this traditional means of communication may be under threat due to the influence of industry and commercial pressures now forced upon universities around the world. Intellectual property (IP) protection is now paramount in most research establishments.
The dissemination of scholarly research has ensured that readers become aware of current research and methodology in their fields, preventing duplication of experiments, and raising awareness of new techniques. Traditionally, this distribution of research results has been through peer reviewed printed journals, primarily held in the libraries of Universities and research institutes and conferences. The wealthier establishments holding the most comprehensive collections of journals and proceedings.
The Information Technology Revolution
Arguably one the most significant achievements of the last 15 years has been the development of the World Wide Web (WWW), a tool in part created by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN for the purpose of sharing information between fellow scientists. As was envisaged by its creators, the web has become so much more than this, which in itself creates a multitude of ethical issues beyond the scope of this paper.
For Science and Technology the WWW offers an excellent medium for sharing and discussing research results, just as private correspondence and printed learned journals have in the past. This not only offers a great opportunity for scientists to keep informed of the latest developments around the world, in an environment in which the experiments appear to be happening just next door and is but a few mouse clicks away from ones own research work, but also allows for one to collaborate globally, with no regional or national boundaries coming into play. Most significantly, it also allows members of the general public to satisfy their own needs to make an informed judgement as to their tax moneys being spent wisely by the research councils and government laboratories. Never in the history of the human species has science and technology had such a huge impact on our daily lives. Through science, mankind has developed the opportunity to revolutionise our lives with for example ‘nuclear power’ or ‘genetic engineering’, but at the same time this knowledge used immorally could destroy us, and the faith and respect the general public have of scientists.
The WWW enables articles to be published rapidly and in principle be available to a wide audience anywhere in the world that has access to a computer with a modem and a phone line. This offers the opportunity of a more level playing field for researchers in less well off nations or Universities. Unfortunately, the full potential of the WWW has not been realised and this is pertinently true in the context of publishing research results. Obtaining a true overview in a subject area will remain more difficult while the majority of research is hidden behind subscription. But, the scope for scientists and technologists to gift humanity truly significant knowledge is now easier than ever before in the history of mankind. The example of ‘satellite communication’ comes easy to ones consciousness, especially after meeting personally with the great visionary Sir Arthur C. Clarke last year in Sri Lanka. His superb description of the use of geostationary orbits for satellites to be used to the transfer and bounce off packets of information streams beamed to space to anywhere in the world, in science fiction novels prevented a single global entity protecting the IPR of satellite communication. This legacy is now seen in everyday life, where all mankind have the ability to buy a relatively inexpensive hand held portable mobile phone and communicate anywhere around the world with almost no delay in the transfer of ideas. The benefits this has afforded commercial enterprises is incalculable. At present, the global market has made it possible that when the western-world is asleep, all the processing of accounts and billing can be tackled in the south east countries, to make the world a truly smaller place to live in.
The potential to access information will continue to increase with developments in Information Technology. This is not only true from the software perspective, but also with developments in hardware. The phenomenal rate of miniaturisation undertaken in the microelectronics sector since the 1960's has delivered computing power to handheld devices of unimaginable magnitude to the pioneers of the field. However, the current technology is reaching its limits, with the familiar Moore's law estimated to reach saturation by around 2010.
As always with science and technology there is a potential successor in the wings ready to carry the baton of progress. The field of Nanotechnology holds the key to more powerful and efficient devices. The driving force for miniaturisation is to make devices faster by virtue of electrons having to travel smaller distances in integrated circuits. By making devices smaller you use up less real-estate and so more devices can be fitted into the integrated circuit (IC) with more functionality and more devices. This dimension of scale can then be utilised to improve and add parallelism to enhance processing power. Nanotechnology could well hold the key to realising quantum computing. Combined with ever increasing storage capabilities, the immense processing power of quantum computing, it will enable people to access enormous databases of information. This is by no means the end of the story. Now, multi-disciplinary teams of researchers are looking to making the mobile communication experience a real one, with ‘immersive presence’ and ‘augmented reality’ being the key words in describing this research. In order for future mobile applications to be able to transmit not just voice, but also real time pictures, data catalogues and 3D presence to a flexible display would require ultra-wide band communication channels that will take up more and more space of the electro-magnetic spectrum. The only limit to access of information will be from those responsible for distributing it, and ultimately buying power (wealth).
Open Access Journals?
Researches as authors provide material free of charge, signing away their copyright to publishers. The publishers then add value through the quality of peer review, editorial assistance, design and marketing of the journal. This is then sold back to the researchers mainly through the mediation of libraries or research department budgets. This means that although researchers are the main consumers of journals, they are less exposed to subscription prices. Also by signing away copyright, researches are restricted in how they use and share their own material. Either they are compelled to do so by the conditions of publication, or they are unaware of the implications of signing away their copyright. This limits their freedom to reuse their own material in teaching or to distribute it via an open website.
The journal publishing market is complex. Different players in the market respond to different variables. Academics respond to impact factors and quality measures, as these effect career progression and future research funding. Libraries spend budgets in order obtain a portfolio of journals which best meet the needs of the academic community they serve. Commercial publishers attempt to maximise profits through manipulating price and availability of journals. Not for profit publishers attempt to acquire a satisfactory return, which enables them to fulfil other objectives, whilst at the same time maximising the availability of their output. The problem is that the variables, which influence behaviour in the commercial market, do not have a strong relationship with the concerns of the academic market, nor the wider community, in the context of the persistence of science as a public good.
The current subscription system for access to research increases the risk that some important research might be overlooked if not easily accessible via the web. As science becomes more multi-disciplinary in fields such as Nano-Biotechnology and as researchers increasingly rely on Internet searches for their reference material, there will be a growing requirement to interconnect the scientific literature, through Internet search engines, in a more sophisticated manner. In order to access many online journals, specifically high impact journals, costly subscriptions must be paid. This effectively restricts access of that commodity to large institutions that are wealthy enough to maintain a comprehensive catalogue. An open access journal works on the same principle of rigorous peer review, but the author(s) and copyright holder(s) grant to all users free, irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual right of access to the information.
Problems still arise over peer review and the confidence of the academic community that they are reading work of acknowledged quality, as exemplified by the Schön case. However, peer review journals are essential for the integrity of scientific endeavour. The journal format still offers the best method to ensure that reported results are credible. There is the possibility that a greater degree of unrestricted accessibility to the scientific literature, will result in an increased opportunity to detect and therefore challenge, plagiarism and fraud. This task should be made easier with the increasing power of Internet tools able to search and compare different documents.
There are groups such as the Public Library of Science, an American association of scientists, trying to establish international online public libraries of science that will archive and distribute the complete contents of published scientific articles and develop new ways of searching and linking information. A further topical example has been the data from the human genome project that was made immediately available on the WWW and could be used by everyone, free of charge. It is the absence of constraints that enables ease of access for vast numbers of researchers in more than 70 countries, 28 of which are in the developing world. A further ethical consideration is that the written information being created in the world is doubling every four years, with knowledge estimated to double every five years. To put this in context, over the last thirty years more information has been created than the preceding five thousand years! What this means is for us to create a knowledgable new generation of youth to take mankind forward, free access to information in printed or virtual format is paramount. For this to happen all governments around the world must come together with a single policy that allows the freedom to access scientific information with the least amount of resistance.
Concluding Remarks
Given the profound influence Science and Technology has on the future success or failure of our civilization, it would be wholly unethical to stifle progress by not allowing the widest access to cutting edge research. Pursuing short-term profit from the publishing of research data is unjustifiable. There will be plenty of opportunity for business to benefit from the output of Science and Technology further down the line. The free flow of knowledge should not be stemmed by short-sighted greed, especially with the opportunities offered by information technology.
This short paper does not offer solutions to the problem. It is just intended to highlight the ethical implications that have arisen from the ease of access to research findings facilitated by the information revolution that has taken place in the last thirty years. This unabated creation of ‘new’ information and knowledge will only widen the gap between those who have free and ready access to information, with those that do not in the coming years. This issue is still under debate, with different camps proffering various solutions.
Bibliography
The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute: Human Genome Project
http://www.sanger.ac.uk/HGP/