Open-Access to Nutrition Research Information: A Public Policy Debate

Abstract

The current debate about open access to scholarly and scientific literature is a public policy debate much like the debates about nutrition labeling on menus, decreasing the marketing of junk food to children, and reducing salt consumption in American diets. Like all public policy debates, stakeholders voice strong arguments on a variety of economic, scientific, and ethical grounds. Proponents of open access argue that it (a) accelerates scholarly communication and thus discovery and innovation, (b) eases the financial strain on libraries caused by increasing costs of serials, (c) reduces the “digital divide,” (d) facilitates an informed citizenry, and (e) levels disparities between developed and developing countries (1).