Written by: Sijbolt Noorda, president VSNU.

Who writes, wants to be read. By as many readers as possible. Who writes scientific articles, wants to be read, quoted and used.
In this day and age, academic publications mainly appear in digital form. This promotes dissemination, speed and ease of use.
Digital libraries have many more users than conventional libraries have readers. Who is digitally readable and findable has a much greater chance of being read and cited than in the past.
And yet, there is a threshold: Those who do not have access to a well stocked digital library cannot make use of all these new possibilities.
Hence the call for Open Access. So that the results of scientific research are also accessible outside the circle of privileged institutions, and can be used. In fact, the call for Open Access is similar to what the 19th-century movement for public libraries wanted: What is of general use should be generally accessible. It is a remarkable contrast, this contradiction between digital speed and worldwide dissemination and the actual, limited access for the many who work outside the wealthy academic centers[...]

Written by: Marlene Sikkens, legal specialist (Ministry of Education, Culture and Science).

In his column, Sybolt Noorda neglects to mention that access to the research data on which scientific authors base their articles should be safeguarded too. Only then can verification of publications become possible and may new (scientific) articles be based on this data [...]

Written by: Ron Dekker – director Institutes, Finance and Infrastructure at NWO

Titel: When possible, do it!

Open Access as DIY method. We can’t make it any easier. Or can we?
Noorda shifts the problem of accessing publications toward the researcher: He or she only has to deposit his or her paper in the university’s repository and the entire world can devour it.
A small detail is that this version often is not the final version as published in the journal. That has to do with copyright[...]

Written by: Peter Doorn, director of DANS

Title: Open Access: data-sharing between dream and reality

Sybolt Noorda proves to be a veritable Nelson Mandela of Open Access in his column Stop de digitale slegs-vir-ons apartheid! He asks all researchers in the Netherlands (and beyond) to upload their digital publications to the digital library of their own universities and institutes. They can easily do that on their own and it encourages the adage Multatuli already broadcasted loudly: I want to be read[...]