"Open Access," is it a Proper Noun?
Recently I've noticed a tendency in my prose to capitalize the words "Open Access." Somehow my mind turned a concept into a brand. I had some help, of course. For a shorthand, many that write about open access use the initialism "OA." It's easy to see how that might introduce capitalization when it comes time to spell out both words--so, "open access" becomes "OA" which is reborn as "Open Access." And, then, many fine OA advocates have worked to make Open Access a brand. With manifestos, conferences, books, and the ever present icon, Open Access is a brand--and that's a good thing too.