(Pixabay, CC0 1.0)
Have you ever stopped to think about the old adage "Knowledge is Power"? Originally attributed to Sir Francis Bacon, this phrase is thrown around in many facets of life, including education, business negotiations, cheeky t-shirts, insurance commercials, and more. But, is knowledge really power?
This module is going to explore this concept through the value of information "as a commodity, as a means of education, as a means to influence, and as a means of negotiating and understanding the world. Legal and socioeconomic interests influence information production and dissemination" (ACRL Framework for Information Literacy, Information Has Value, 2018)
After completing this module, you will be able to:
(CreativeMagic, Pixabay, CC0)
Information is everywhere whether you realize it or not! A stoplight gives you information on the state of the intersection so you don't get hit, a recipe gives you information on how to make your favorite meal, and when your roommate informs you that they are going home for the weekend, it helps you not worry.
Information is very valuable; not only does it help you not get hit by a car, or cook your favorite meal, or not worry, it also helps you negotiate and understand the world. Throughout your day, you consume information that helps you understand and plan your current day, week, month, year, or even years! It is the building block of your understanding of the world.
Information has four main types of value. Let's explore them together:
In March 2020, the United States went into an unprecedented lockdown because of the COVID-19 virus outbreak. People didn't know how long they would be stuck at home, or how long they had to fear going out into public, there seemingly was no end. But, less than ONE year later the world was in a massive rollout of multiple vaccines saving millions of lives.
How did they get a vaccine so fast? Because of open information (and the hard work of expert scientists)!
Just 10 days after a pneumonia-like illness (later classified as COVID-19) was first reported, Chinese scientists released the genetic sequence of the virus in an open-access repository for genetic information (more about open-access later). The next morning, Andrew Mesecar, a professor of cancer structural biology at Purdue University, redirected his laboratory to start analyzing the genetic sequence. They found that the virus had a similar genome to the SARS virus, which spread in the early 2000s.
Using this information, scientists knew more about a virus than they ever have at an early stage of an outbreak. They were able to understand how it spread, what safety precautions were necessary, and how the virus attacks the body. All of these findings were imperative to keep people safe. The same genetic sequence was also used later to develop a vaccine.
What's the point? The access to information (the genetic sequence of COVID-19) was extremely valuable for society as it helped save millions of people.
(OpenClipart-Vectors, Pixabay, CC0)
Not all access to information is the same. Everybody has their unique information privilege, "the possession of the position, opportunity, or advantage to access certain information" (Char Booth 2014).
There are many barriers to information. Let's explore some of the most significant together.
Use this graphic to think about how your information privilege affects your research experience:
(Duke University Library, CC BY-NC 2.0)
The Cost. We will explore the cost of information on the next page.
The content for this module was drawn from the following sources:
Booth, C (2014) On Information Privilege https://infomational.com/2014/12/01/on-information-privilege
Johnson, C. Y. (2020, January 24). Scientists are unraveling the Chinese coronavirus with unprecedented speed and openness. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2020/01/24/scientists-are-unraveling-chinese-coronavirus-with-unprecedented-speed-openness
Metcalf, E. (2021) A Beginners Guide to Information Literacy. CC BY NC SA: Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike. https://oercommons.org/courseware/lesson/83552/overview
(Huntorganic, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Do you know that feeling when you find the perfect article to answer your question? The excitement starts to build as you click on the article then... it's behind a paywall. You have to pay money out of your own pocket to access it. You have a few options: do you pay for it? Do you try to find another article? Do you reach out to a librarian?
This headache is because scholarly information is expensive. According to research by the Duke University Libraries, around 60 of the 100 most cited articles ever published are behind a paywall. That means that the researcher has to pay for access.
Let's take a look at the numbers:
| Journal | Article | Out-of-Pocket Price | Total Citations | Total Price (if every researcher paid out of pocket) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nature | $39.95 | 308,468 | $12,323,296 | |
| Journal of Qualitative Research in Psychology |
Using thematic analysis in psychologyLinks to an external site. |
$53.00 | 79,404 | $4,208,412 |
| Science |
Multilineage Potential of Adult Human Mesenchymal Stem CellsLinks to an external site. |
$15.00 | 29,659 | $444,885 |
Chart data as of June 18, 2024
As you can see, it is expensive for a researcher to get access to articles. But, fear not, if you are affiliated with an academic library (your college library, a special library, etc) the library may have a subscription to that journal so you can get the article with no out-of-pocket cost. With an affiliation to an academic library, you have access to millions of dollars of scholarly research.
But, people who don't have access to an academic library have to pay for access. As you'll notice the price of academic research can add up very quickly, creating an economic barrier to information.
The access to these journals costs the library money. Let's take a look at the numbers:
| Journal | Library Subscription Price | Renewal Timeframe |
|---|---|---|
| Nature | $13,989 | Annual |
| Journal of Qualitative Research in Psychology | $658.00 | Annual |
| Science | $10,532 | Annual |
Chart data prices are calculated with FTE between 3,000 and 10,000. Chart data as of June 18, 2024
Information is expensive! It's important to take advantage of all the information your library or school has access to while you can. Once you graduate or move on to something else, you will lose access to all the articles you currently have access to from your school.
Open Access (OA) Journals are scholarly journals that are free for the user/researcher to access. Traditional journal publishing models pay for the cost of publishing by charging access to the materials, that's why the library holds paid subscriptions. It's to help cover that cost. Open Access shifts that cost from the researcher (you) to the author, or more likely to a sponsoring corporation, a government entity, or a consortium. Thus allowing researchers to access materials free of charge.
Open access seems like the answer to expensive access costs... right? To an extent yes, but there are still some advantages of using paid scholarly resources. Let's explore the advantages and disadvantages of open-access materials.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| More people can read the results of scholarly research, including those who would otherwise not be able to because of the cost | The number of high-quality, fully open-access journals varies enormously across different disciplines |
| New ideas can be dispersed more rapidly and widely | OA journals often don't have the reputation of paid scholarly journals |
A common myth is that OA resources are of less quality than traditionally published materials. This is not true. Much like traditionally published materials the reliability/quality of the journals depends on the publisher, the editorial team, the peer-reviewers, the authors, etc, not the publishing model (OA vs Traditional). So feel free to cite open-access journals in your research, just remember some disciplines are represented more than others in OA resources.
Want to find some Open Access Resources? Check out these databases:
The content for this module was drawn from the following sources:
Open Access Explained (2013) Piled Higher and Deeper (PHD Comics). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5rVH1KGBCY
"Paywalls and Information Costs" (n.d.) Library 101 Toolkit Duke University Libraries. https://sites.duke.edu/library101_instructors/2018/09/05/paywalls-and-information-costs/
"Pros and Cons" (n.d.) Open Access Netherlands. https://www.openaccess.nl/en/what-is-open-access/pros-and-cons
Pretend you are not affiliated with an academic library and you are a researcher. You are researching how climate change affects United States cities. You've found three articles, but you only have the budget to purchase one.
Using only the information on the free record (title, author, date, abstract) choose one of the three articles to purchase. Then answer the following questions.
Capacity for climate change planning: assessing metropolitan responses in the United States
City governments measuring their response to climate change
Title of selected article:
Why did you select this article?
How is this article valuable to your research question?
Did your lack of information access affect your decision?
See the Google doc here for quiz questions and answers. Please note, this document is stored on the PALNI team drive and is only accessible to those who work in a PALNI school.
All of the PALNI Information Literacy Modules are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
