Open access to scientific knowledge and feudalism knowledge: Is there a connection?

• Main Author: Vladimir M. Moskovkin
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Webology Center 2011-06-01
• Series: Webology
• Subjects: Open access; Feudalism knowledge; Universities; Transnational corporations; Google Scholar; Google Patents
• Online Access: http://www.webology.org/2011/v8n1/a83.html

The role of universities and transnational corporations in the circulation of scientific knowledge is considered. If institutions generate, mostly scientific knowledge, trying to facilitate its free circulation, then transnational companies, contrarily, try to remove most significant and cutting-edge scientific knowledge from free circulation and its commercialization and reintroduction into an open, but now commercial, circulation in the TRIPS. However, paradoxical, the open access movement to scientific knowledge, eventually, facilitates feudalism of knowledge. We call this phenomenon the "open access - paradox". Based on the experiments done with Google Scholar and Google Patents, it is shown that universities generates, mostly scientific knowledge (scientific articles), and transnational companies generates, mostly technological knowledge (patents).