In an example of how much open access may change scholarship, it was announced the Dead Sea Scrolls will be scanned in high resolution and made available online and open access.
As more primary sources are made available for study, scholarship will become more democratic. This will have both positive and negative aspects, but as with the greater availability of scientific studies, the primary result will be beneficial.
found via Open Access News
This field never ceases to generate controversy. Museum exhibits have been abusively slanted towards an increasingly disputed theory, and plagiarism charges have surfaced against Lawrence Schiffman, author of the popular “Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls.” See
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/plagiarism-and-dead-sea-scrolls-did-nyu-department-chairman-pilfer-chicago-historian-s-work