Open Access to Science Communication Research: Your Options › From The Lab Bench

"In a recent blog post on Communication Breakdown, Matt Shipman started a discussion about science communication journals and obstacles to making them open access (OA) for the benefit of science communication practitioners. Critiquing, suggesting, sharing ideas and data—this communication is the heart of science, the most powerful tool ever invented for correcting errors, building on colleagues’ work and fashioning new knowledge. – Waldrop, Science 2.0 There are a variety of issues at play in current obstacles to open access of science communication research. They include a lack of funding for author pay models of OA in the social sciences, a lack of awareness of existing open access publishing options, and hesitation on the part of tenure-track communication researchers to ‘risk’ publishing OA early in their careers. But another important issue may be a lack of awareness of your 'green OA' options even when you publish a paper with a traditional journal ..."