There are a lot of great things out there in life that are free, and there are also a lot of great things out there that people have no problem paying for. So what should be free and what should have a price? I never had thought about it too much until this point. I pay for music, movies, and cable tv because those are luxuries in life for me. However, it’s nice to know that if one day I can’t afford to pay for cable anymore, there are other sources out there and I could still watch tv for free. I feel like in that particular case it is nothing more than a preference.
So what is different when it comes to information rather than entertainment? For me, I do believe that information should be free. I think that people all around the world from every different lifestyle should have the option to learn and to read scholarly articles whether it’s in order to complete a research assignment or whether it’s just because that person wants to increase their knowledge. Whether or not you can readily access information should not be a choice that you pay for or subscribe to. Information should be readily available and accessible for free.
Scholars are not paid to write articles for various journals so why should the researcher have to pay to read these articles? Although I understand that there are always going to be certain costs in order to publish those journals, I think that they could be financed in some other way, such as how google uses advertising to pay for it’s free service. If some other teqnique was used to supplement the income needed to publish these journals, people from all around could do research more easily and maybe that would make the world a more knowledgeable place. You shouldn’t have to rely on being able to afford to subscribe to these journals, and you shouldn’t have to rely on being a college student to have access. Information and the opportunity to gain knowledge should always be free.
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