http://www.sparc.arl.org/students/publicbenefits.shtml
How Open Access Benefits the Public
- Return on Investment: making research publicly available as soon as possible will allow other researchers to build on new ideas as soon as they are published, while in the current system these ideas might remained locked away and unable to advance to state of the field. To have the greatest possible impact, the research we fund as taxpayers must be made available to the largest possible audience to make use of and build upon new ideas.
- Exercising our Right to Research: as taxpayers who pay for much of the research published in journals, we have a collective right to access the information resulting from our investment.