Open Access e scienze umane

“I am sure that, 3,000 years ago, many people criticized the papyrus and regretted the ancient stone support: I am serene about the future of the book and its digitalisation”. Thus the American writer R. Banks makes a measure of the progressive and painful change of the tools of knowledge: the juxtaposition of digital documents to paper publications was quickly perceived also by the variegated university world, leaving however many doubts to the users who operate in it . What do we talk about when we mention Open Access? How and with what costs can the texts circulate? How are these perceived by those who manage them, by those who distribute them and by those who read them? The contributions of this miscellany, aimed above all at the audience of users of the humanistic journals, provide some answers to these questions. They are arranged in a wide range of reflections, of different tenor and subject, to discuss an innovative and increasingly widespread publication tool, but still being defined and accepted.