Closed Door

Academic paywalls--in this case on APA PsycNET--are hostile to public intellectual growth.

I would like to read this paper, based on the abstract:

"Observed, as part of a larger study of psychiatric ward design and patient behavior, activities of patients in bedrooms of 3 hospitals. Behavior was categorized as social, isolated active, and isolated passive and was related to the size of the bedrooms, expressed in number of beds (1-12). All rooms were found to be treated by the patients as if they were private rooms. Occupied rooms containing fewer than 6 beds usually held only 1 patient. Isolated passive behavior was the most common type of activity in all rooms, and increased with room size. Social activity decreased with the number of persons in the room." [Bold added.]

How can one help but be intrigued? Was it surprising that patients treated their rooms as personal spaces, and if so, why? "Isolated passive behavior"--what is that, exactly? When I inserted the phrase into Google, this equally inaccessible research came up.

The point is that paywalls prevent me from pursuing my curiosity down a scientifically rigorous path. If I felt like there was a good reason for them to exist, I wouldn't protest. But after reading a bit on the topic, I am confident that a more effective and fair system could be implemented.* No, not one where the author pays.

In lieu of being able to read about the activity in psych ward bedrooms, here is a depiction of one by Flickr user 75':



*The articles I consulted: "Why are journals so expensive?", "Why does it cost $20,000 a year to subscribe a science journal?", "How much does it cost to get a scientific paper?", and "Open access: The true cost of science publishing".