Greetings Wonderguests!
I’ve spent a lot of time digging through the depths of second hand knowledge in an attempt to get to the bottom of things. Whenever I write one of these articles, I find that I run into the same problem over and over and over again. My facts are based on secondary sources. Why? Well as it turns out most primary source scientific information comes in the form of the scientific journal. If a knowledge seeker wants to read some journals of scientific merit they almost always have to shell out a heck of a lot of money to do so. Conversely, any writer who has access to a scientific journal can basically write whatever they want about said journal knowing that everybody will be looking to them for the “Facts.” Well, frankly, I have had enough.
And fortunately so has the internet. I introduce to you this list of Open Access Journals. Open Access Journals are exactly that. The majority of them are entirely free to read, review and sometimes even allow for permission-free mass production.
This website, Wondergressive, writes with passion in an effort to share knowledge in as unbiased a way as possible. Relying on websites that actively filter popular news effectively disallows us from doing so. While Open Access Journals have a lot of good, free, and earnest information to offer, “Closed Access Journals” publish a ridiculous amount of costly information with nothing in mind but the cash flow. The collective stream of intelligence is but a trivial side effect.
Many of you may remember having a session or two with your schools library research team as they excitedly tell you all the ways that you can seek information. I know I have. I didn’t understand why they were so excited until I came to the understanding that librarians have access to an intense amount of information. Catalogs upon catalogs of indexed information. Open Access Journals give us the chance to understand on our own terms.
Recently Aaron Swartz passed away. Aaron Swartz, co founder of Reddit and all around brilliant individual, fought a long and hard battle against online censorship. After years of legal battles relating to downloading a digital ton of academic journals, Aaron committed suicide. Before his death he fought hard for free and open information with the belief that knowledge should be for everybody.
So next time that you’re deeply involved in a research project, remember that you can get your information first hand from before it is filtered, misquoted, and watered down by the rest of the internet. Free information is a necessary tool in our quest to Be Always Growing.
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Wondergressive 