I wonder if closed-access publishing is part of why academia seems so insluated from the "real world". People write for their audience, and if the general public can't read academic papers, then academics are going to write as if only other academics are reading. Likewise, if research output is difficult to access, the feedback loop between ideas and implementation is broken; folks outside academia can't easily comme…
I need to say this carefully. Some things can't be written for a general audience. It can not be distilled that much. That isn't to suggest that citizen scientists should be discouraged, just that some things are actually pretty difficult to explain and to grasp. To be very clear, I support open publishing. I just feel obligated to point out that most of the general public isn't going to understand and it isn't ever…
The fact that things cannot be written for a general audience doesn't mean that we need to limit access to information which cannot be understood by a general audience.