Source:  http://www.helsinki.fi/collegium/journal/open_access.htm

WHY OPEN ACCESS?

How does open access to publications benefit researchers?

The visibility and availability of articles is in the best interests of researchers.

• Openly accessible articles can be found and
  accessed more widely than articles that are only published in journals
  available to subscribers and whose reference data may only be available
  in closed, fee-based reference databases. In other words, openly
  accessible articles are more likely to be referenced. References bring
  merit to researchers and increase their visibility, improving the impact
  of their work.

Researchers get broader access to fresh material.

• As open publishing becomes more common and publication
  repositories begin to fill up, researchers and other citizens gain
  access to an increasing number of fresh research publications. The
  availability of research data does not depend on the ability of
  researchers or the organisations backing them to pay for the constantly
  rising subscription and licence fees of research journals.

Why do universities recommend open access to research publications?

The visibility and impact of research results and researchers are
also used to measure the quality of universities in relation to one
another. If the media, SME sector and general public get easy access to
research publications, this also increases the social impact of
universities.

By supporting self-archiving and open online
publishing, universities contribute to academic communication and the
open accessibility of research results. Moreover, the greater the number
of research publications openly accessible, the easier it is to
evaluate University research.

Social benefit

Since much of the research conducted at universities is publicly
funded, it makes sense that the results of such research are openly and
publicly available.

Open access speeds up and enhances academic
communication in addition to increasing the ways in which research
results can be utilised by making them available to the media, the third
sector and the general public.

Open access to research articles also makes the
publications available to such universities and research institutions
that may not be able to afford expensive journal subscriptions. Among
other things, open access promotes the dissemination of academic
research in developing countries.

More information on open access in the University of Helsinki can be found here.

COLLeGIUM