Is Open Access to Information Good for Research?

1. Most of my research is limited to open-access sources due to geographical (and economic) constraints.

2. Open access does not necessarily flood researchers with too much data, but it certainly accentuates the fact that too much data turns it all in to noise...

Open-access has a lot of duplication and sometimes seemingly inaccurate information so there is a lot to sort through. However, at least we get the choice to select what fits our needs. The seemingly inaccurate information in some cases may be opportunities to build from or to investigate further.

Yes and just like referencing books in a library, you have to check to if it is a reputable source.

Wiki is not a reputable source. Many of the online informational sites will have references listed at the end of their articles.

Literature review is the first step in research works. While doing literature review if the related information are available freely it is an added advantage to the researchers. It is the duty of the researchers to decide the correct information from the pool of open resources of information.

Industrial Research is purely a problem and solution oriented serious activity aimed at result oriented deliveries. Whereas paper oriented research is just meant for acdamecians just to get a P.hD label. Data, graphs,papers, beautiful presentations look colourful for a P.hD oriented research. Strangely the mathematical cream dominates the research presentations and many peers are addicted to the same. Data and graphs are just aids of research tools and need not be the main focus. It all depends on what class of research is on going.

Open access to information helps and hurts

If one is planning to start new project it helps to collect information in public domain and if done correctly few of the bad datas are removed from consideration and other used to define research path for product development

It hurts and few times when author is putting information is distraction to extend product life and get some time from competitors researchers to have publication which is true but leads to inferior product quality and forces other organization to stay behind.

Only advice I have is to be careful with open access information when you plan an experiment or putting project details