Quick Review
John Willinsky argues convincingly that open access is an ethical, social, and economic imperative, especially in an age of digital publishing. Taking a global perspective, he first chronicles with detailed research the devastating effect of the for-profit publishing enterprise where large corporations dominate. Rather than condemn academics who participate in such systems, he instead provides extensive ways that individuals, interface designers, and institutions can begin to change the system and why such change makes sense. For computers and writing scholars—both faculty and graduate students—his work provides a rich analysis of the ecologies of publication, investigating the intersections of technology, publishing, and information circulation.
Willinsky considers issues of access from social, political, and economic perspectives. He raises important issues such as the cost of the current, prevalent systems of for-profit scholarship, the options of open access available to journal publishers and to authors, the process of reading online texts, the collaboration between institutions, libraries, scholars, and journals necessary to make open access databases a reality, the processes of indexing, and the theoretical and social reasons for looking at open access as an issue of human rights.
Willinsky asks his readers to consider how information and knowledge are being disseminated around the world, inside and outside of the university. He continually stresses that open access is not an either/or choice, but a choice that encourages multiple flavors. He speaks to scholars who wish to share scholarship so as to engage with colleagues, with the public, and with the world, and, overall, makes a convincing argument through his access principle. Willinsky, a professor of language and literacy education at the University of British Columbia, understands firsthand the need to use digital technologies so as to produce knowledge that makes "a public impact that extends well beyond the academic community" (x).