Essay on Open Access Would you help to correct this essay please? Thank you in advance. -------------------------------------- Some people believe that it is good to share as much information as possible in scientific research, business and the academic world. Others believe that some information is too important or too valuable to be shared freely. Discuss both these views and give your own opinion. People have differing views with regard to the question of whether information should be open access in the fields of science, business and academy. While I tend towards the viewpoint that free information sharing is beneficial, I would have to support free sharing with restriction. One the one hand, having free access to information is certainly considered beneficial. The key objective for researchers to carry out research is to further the advancement of knowledge. Open access provides an incentive for people who are interested in research to build on new ideas, and therefore potentially leading to innovation. Another argument for this opinion is that paying for journal subscription will be a financial burden on the underprivileged in need. For example, poor patients who are diagnosed with a serious illness may want to investigate the medical literature to better understand their situation and find possible treatments. On the other hand, I can understand the arguments against free information sharing. Firstly, opponents of this opinion argue that the cost of publication will be transferred from the public to authors, and this may discourage the authors to mandate open access. Secondly, research quality will suffer as journals publish as much research as possible for covering its running cost. Finally, if some dangerous research, such as nuclear weapons, were available to the public, this would have a negative impact on national security. In my view, it is important to address the issue about publication fee and select which research is appropriate to be open. In conclusion, it seems to me that it would be better to share information freely as long as there is no adverse effect on the quality of research and national security.