Embracing Open Access: My Scholarly Commitment to Shared Knowledge

December 8, 2024

As I prepare for the 2024-2025 Werklund Distinguished Research Lecture, I’ve been reflecting about how important it is to make scholarly work accessible to all. Open access (OA) is more than just a publishing model—it is a philosophy that challenges traditional barriers to knowledge dissemination and embodies the true spirit of academic scholarship.

Breaking Down Barriers to Knowledge

Historically (at least in my lived historical experience in higher education), academic research has been locked behind expensive paywalls, creating a significant divide that extends far beyond academic institutions. This exclusionary model particularly impacts researchers and knowledge seekers who find themselves on the margins of academic privilege. Researchers in middle and low-income countries (LMICs) often struggle to access scholarly and scientific literature and independent scholars and community practitioners face substantial financial barriers to staying current in their fields. Students and educators with limited institutional resources find themselves cut off from the latest scholarly insights, and curious members of the public are shut out from understanding complex academic work that could potentially transform their understanding of the world.

The Ethical Imperative of Sharing

Research is fundamentally about advancing human understanding, and restricting access undermines this core mission. Open access is commitment to knowledge as a public good, enabling a more dynamic and inclusive approach to scholarly communication. By removing economic and institutional barriers, we create opportunities for faster dissemination of critical findings, increased global collaboration, and unprecedented transparency in research methodologies. This approach allows for more rapid scientific and social progress, breaking down the traditional silos that have long constrained academic discourse.

Amplifying Research Impact

Contrary to traditional concerns, open access actually enhances the visibility and influence of scholarly work. Publications that are freely available receive more citations and reach broader audiences. This expanded reach afforded through OA creates opportunities for interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary connections that might otherwise remain unexplored, allowing research to transcend the narrow confines of specialized academic journals and engage with a more diverse intellectual ecosystem.

Personal Commitment and Broader Vision

As I prepare for this lecture, I am reflecting deeply about my commitment to open access (OA). One of my goals is to create a more equitable, informed, and connected world. This isn’t only about making documents freely downloadable, but also about cultivating a more inclusive intellectual landscape where knowledge can flow freely, unencumbered by economic or institutional constraints.

Practical Pathways to Open Access

For researchers considering this path, the journey involves strategic choices and institutional engagement. I am grateful for the privilege of working at the University of Calgary where researchers can self-archive their works into our institutional digital repository, PRISM. 

Our university supports infrastructures that recognize and reward open access scholarship. Not everyone has this privilege.

Navigating Copyright and Publisher Agreements

Having said all this, I also recognize that it is important to abide by existing copyright agreements with publishers. Academic publishing involves complex legal and contractual relationships. Each publication typically comes with specific copyright terms that must be honoured (both ethically and legally), which may limit immediate or unrestricted sharing. 

Because of this, I won’t be able to share all my work with a Creative Commons licence— not if a publisher holds the copyright. It does mean that I will look for creative and ethical ways to maximize access while maintaining professional integrity and contractual obligations.

Concluding reflections

Open access is not just about free downloads—it’s about free thinking, free exploration, and our commitment to knowledge being a universal right, not a privileged access. The longer I work in higher education, the more I am thinking about the future of knowledge, teaching, learning, and creating opportunities for others to thrive. This is really what is driving me right now — creating opportunities for others to thrive. Making as much of my work freely available as open access resources is one way I can do this.

Here are some places you can find my work:

Google Scholar

Research Gate

University of Calgary PRISM digital repository

As we get closer to the lecture, I’ll be making more and more of my work available as free open access downloads. I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to the lecture.

Related posts

Re-released as a Free Open Access Resource: 101 Ways to Market Your Language Program (2002)

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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a Professor and Research Chair in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.

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Promotion to Professor: Reflecting on a Three-Decade Journey

June 25, 2024

It has been a while since I have blogged. Life has been non-stop this year, but I wanted to take a moment to share some good news. I have been promoted to the rank of Professor, effective July 1, 2024. A few months back, I was also named as the Werklund Research Professor, which is a prestigious research chair in the Werklund School of Education.

AltText: An announcement postcard. On the left is a photo of a woman with curly hair wearing glasses, a blue shirt, a black jacket and a pearl necklace. The are is an abstract background and the photo is framed in red and orange. On the right is the University of Calgary logo and black text that reads: Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, Professor, Werklund Research Professor. Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, has been promoted to the rank of Professor effective July 1, 2024. In addition, Professor Eaton has been named as the Werklund Research Professor, at the Werklund School of Education.

I have long had a passion for integrity and ethics. I am grateful to have an opportunity to focus on ethics in my scholarship, advocacy, and leadership. The Werklund Research Professorship is a prestigious research chair, internally funded through the philanthropic generosity of Dr. David Werklund, the named patron of the Werklund School of Education. To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time anywhere in the world that a research chair role has focused on academic and research integrity. I am honoured to take up this work to advance scholarship related to ethics and integrity in higher education.

I was a first-generation student. Neither of my parents finished high school. When I was a child, my mother drilled into me that there was nothing more important than getting an education, working hard, and being independent. I have written about this, and part of my early life here. I started working when I was 15 and my first job was in a grocery store. When I first applied to university after graduating from secondary school, I had no idea how to go about filling out the application. Like many first-in-family students, I did not even know what questions to ask. I received modest scholarships throughout my studies, but I also worked, often at multiple part-time jobs, to pay the bills (including tuition), buy books, and put food on the table. I wasn’t something that I felt was a hardship, it was just something I did.

The promotion to full professor comes after 30 years of teaching at the University of Calgary. From 1994 to 2016, I taught on contract as a sessional instructor. After 22 years of precarious employment, I secured a tenure-track role in 2016. In 2020, I was promoted to associate professor with tenure. When considered in the context of the entirety of career, advancements are neither quick, nor easy. For more than two decades, I worked on semester-to-semester contracts, never knowing for sure if I would be employed in the following term until the contract actually came through. I established and successfully ran a consulting company that I maintained for twenty years, serving clients in industry, non-profit, and government. I enjoyed that work (mostly), but there were many aspects of running a business that I was horrible at.

There are plenty of things I am not good at, but I have always excelled at writing, reading, and synthesizing large amounts of information. I love working with students and I am well suited to online teaching and graduate supervision. I have not always had the luxury of being able to do work that I am good at and I recognize that it is a privilege to have a job where I can use my talents. For me, being a professor more than a job, though. It has been a lifelong dream. The reality of higher education is much harsher, more exhausting, and outright merciless than I ever imagined, and yet, I still want to be here.

One reason for this, is that there is much work to be done to preserve and sustain ethics and integrity in science, scholarly publication, teaching, learning, and educational administration. Generative artificial intelligence (Gen AI) has brought new twists on perennial challenges. Systemic barriers to academic success persist and there is plenty of research to show that corrupt and unfair systems can contribute to academic and research misconduct. Although I am interested in helping individuals uphold academic integrity, it is a fool’s errand to ignore the systemic inequities, barriers, and discrimination that are embedded into educational systems that perpetuate harm.

As I reflect back and plan forward, my goal now is to focus on doing what I can to leave the higher education system better than I found it. I plan to do this by raising awareness about systemic ethical issues and advocating for change to benefit students and staff, particularly those from equity-deserving groups. I look forward to continuing and expanding international collaborations (especially with colleagues at CRADLE Deakin University, where I hold the role of Honorary Associate Professor) and mentoring and supervising doctoral students, along with teaching and serving in leadership roles in the coming years.

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Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, is a faculty member in the Werklund School of Education at the University of Calgary, Canada. Opinions are my own and do not represent those of my employer.

Sarah Elaine Eaton, PhD, Editor-in-Chief, International Journal for Educational Integrity

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