[T]he very notion of
document as a tool to structure thought, memory and verifiable
predictions is undergoing deep transformations that will not be fully
understood for decades. It took centuries to understand print documents.
Open Access is a spin-off of digital culture, and it cannot be
understood without reference to it.
[I]f the financial underpinning of a communication system leads to
difficulties for scientists, what should be changed? The answer is
simple, and it is a question of simple priorities: the communication
system of science and its objectives trump business plans, not the
reverse.
Short of arguing that the science communication system is not a
communication system at all, but rather an archive, or a way to
adjudicate paternity to some idea, theory or concept, treating
scientific communication as a set of saleable services, and not as the
fundamental underpinning of knowledge creation and validation, makes
little sense.