Academic publishing

We are probably all frustrated by the fact that many scientific papers are not available for free: and the costs are high which restricts access to those who are members of academic institutions and the like. We are all familiar with wikileaks and the campaign to make government and financial institution information open to the public. Now it appears that there are some acadmics who are doing the same kind of thing. I find this very heartening

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/20...hing?CMP=twt_fd

I understand that problems of copyright are not simple and that some institutions may rely on the income, just as some artists do. I have no idea what should be done about that. But most scientific and research institutions in this country are publicly funded, at least to some extent. I see no reason why research findings cannot be made freely available and I thnk they should be.

Without going into a tangent about copyright which we have already discussed to some extent, I agree. If these things are publically funded then they should treat the public like shareholders or something similar, even if the goverment is against nationalisation and pro-capatilist. If it is funded through taxes by the public, then all of us in some ways own it and have a right to view this content.