Writing the Dreaded Science Article

My ALES 204 class had a module that focused specifically on scientific articles. We learned how to easily find them, what to look for in an article, and how to references them properly. The skills in tips I learnt in class have become extremely helpful for I have had to complete several assignments using journal articles this term. What used to take me hours to do now takes me minutes. When I get an assignment that involves finding and referencing an article I no longer cringe in dread because I know how to use every tool I need to get an article and references it. For my science article assignment in ALES 204 I chose to write about the open access movement, the following is abstracts from my assignment mixed in with new additions for my blog. Enjoy!

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There is nothing worse for a student attempting to write a paper, then finding the perfect journal article only to find that the article is not available without a subscription to the journal or some kind of payment. It is one of the biggest lets downs faced repeatedly in a student’s academic life. Post secondary education requires students to be able to find and properly reference peer-reviewed journal articles. It’s a process that should be easy but can become exceedingly frustrating very quickly.

Authors of journal articles are paid by institutions to conduct their research; the articles are the tangible results of that research. To have their papers published, authors must submit it to a publishing journal which will arrange for it to be peer-reviewed, critiqued by other professionals in their field. The journal sends the peer-review results back to the author who will edit and resubmit for publication. That journal then charges subscription fees to readers who want to read the article which restricts public access. Academic Institutions have to pay millions in subscription fees to journals so that their students will be able to have access to peer-reviewed articles. The University of Alberta spent over 29 million in the 2008-09 academic year on academic information and comm technologies (University of Alberta, n.d.,). The average person cannot afford to pay such outrageous fees and are therefore alienated from the information in journals. Trying to eliminating the price restriction barriers and allow universal access to all academic literature is the Open Access Movement (OAM).


The OAM is free unrestricted access to peer-reviewed journals or other literature (Budapest Open Access Initiative, n.d.,). The goal of OAM is the removal of barriers to improve learning, education, and research by making literature as useful as possible. Affordable and effective strategies for making open access economically self-sustaining are self-archiving and open access journals. Self archiving is where authors make a copy of their articles and deposit it in an open electronic archive. These archives allow users to find and use journal articles just by using search engines; an example is PubMed. Another strategy is open access journals, where journals use copyright to allow access to articles instead of restricting them by charging readers fees; these instead turn to other funding methods such as governments, universities, and foundations.

The University of Alberta has an online library where students can go to find journal articles for scientific papers. Their data bases are exceedingly helpful and if you can't find what you are looking for you can chat with a librarian online. Millions of dollars are spent by the University to help students and give them access to peer reviewed articles through self archives, open access journals, and subscription journals. Utilizing the tools and information provided to you can make writing that paper way easier. 



Picture retrieved from http://www.library.ualberta.ca/



The open access movement is a revolutionary concept that will improve the lives of all people interested in academic research and will free finances for other usages than subscriptions. Students will be able to use self-archives to find peer-reviewed journal articles and actually be able to read and use them. Institutions and libraries will be able to use the cancelled subscription money for other means. The OAM can also influence lives indirectly; a doctor can have access to the newest research and apply it to their patients. People who could not afford academic literature will be able to with the OAM. Although publishers will those a substantial amount of money from the loss of subscriptions they can still be sustained with publication fees. Open access is a concept that is catching on and will continue to gain support from people everywhere.

To read more of my scientific article go to this Google Doc