Open Journal of Accounting, 2013, 2, 95-96
http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojacct.2013.24012 Published Online October 2013 (http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojacct)
Academia Should Embrace Open Access Scholarly
Publishing
Hubert D. Glover
Department of Accounting, LeBow College of Business, Drexel University, Philadelphia, USA
Received July 15, 2013; revised August 21, 2013; accepted September 1, 2013
Copyright © 2013 Hubert D. Glover. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Dear Editor,
During the early part of the 21st Century, AT&T and
Verizon noted that revenue from traditional residence
based land lines had been surpassed by wireless revenues.
Likewise, Amazon noted just a few years ago a similar
milestone when e-books surpassed paper books’ reve-
nues. PC manufacturers such as HP are seeking declines
in sales while mobile phone manufactures such as Sam-
sung experience significant sales increase as more con-
sumers globally access the internet via mobile connec-
tions. Similarly more and more of the millions of stu-
dents enrolled around the world today take courses in
some form of online education or Massive Online Open
Courses (MOOCs).
When I was working on my doctorate at Texas A&M
University I represented my department at the annual
accounting doctoral student symposium hosted by Deloitte
in 1991. During that symposium the late Alvin Arens
noted that the emergence of information technology was
closing the gap between larger and smaller academic
institutions. Arens notes that the inherent resource dif-
ference is mitigated by technology such as electronic
databases with journal articles or financial information.
Thereby, allowing faculty and doctoral students to con-
duct similar lines of inquiry despite the size of the insti-
tution.
My co-author in a recently published book “Giraffes
of Technology: The Making of the Twenty-First Leader”
notes that technology provides a democratization of in-
formation. In other words from the most rural and lower
socio economic level to the most developed and affluent
groups, information is equally available.
Finally, I recall submitting a proposal regarding the
consolidation of university resources into one central elec -
tronic database and the elimination of paper subscriptions
in 1994 at my first academic institution. The proposal
was soundly rejected as it was premature. However, to-
day, many colleges have reorganized their libraries to be
part of the their information resources group, eliminated
or greatly reduced paper based subscriptions and replaced
with enterprise or bulk electronic subscriptions and ac-
cess to mainstream and proprietary databases are a prior-
ity if not the norm.
The economy has become clearly global as the reces-
sion that began in 2007 had an effect throughout the wo rld
as markets due to technology and trade are interconnect ed
as never before. Just look at the US stock markets that
ebb and flow on the economic reports from China to
Greece. Today more than 100 companies have adopted
International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and
many more will adopt in the future. The former G2 is
now G20 and growing.
Our scholarly activities should mirror the global mar-
ket trends. I have sat on the boards of the American In-
stitute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and In-
stitute of Management Accountants (IMA) who now have
significant global strategies. I am also serving on the
finance committee for the American Accounting Asso-
ciation (AAA) which has more than a third of its mem-
bership is internatio nal.
Thus, I am excited about the latest trend in academic
publishing which is open access. Some of our leading
and prolific business scholars are now paying for open
access to their articles. Despite their publication in tier
one journal, I asked one of these leading scholars in ac-
counting why he elected to pay thousands for open ac-
cess and he noted “our goal is to advance the profession
by contributing to the body of knowledge… hence it is
essential that as many as possible access this contribution
to generate an organic and dynamic response….”
The launching of the Open Journal of Accounting is an
innovative step to facilitating the requisite exchange of
ideas, contributions to the body of knowledge and the
access to best practices in research, pedagogy and other
key issues facing our profession.
Leading scholars are willing to expend financial re-
C
opyright © 2013 SciRes. OJAcct

H. D. GLOVER
96
sources when they have no incentive from a promotion
and tenure perspective to ensure access to their informa-
tion. We should formalize their pioneering steps to share
their research by offering a medium for scholars around
the globe to contribute to advancing the profession.
Conclusion
The business and academic landscape will continue to
change and the underlying message access to information
must be free or a reasonable cost and the ability to access
must be efficient and effective.