Users of #openaccess research speak. These stories volunteered by the users of…

"These stories volunteered by the users of our open-access repository are the best evidence that OA serves real people with real needs, that OA meets unmet demand, that the demand unmet by conventional journals includes academic and non-academic readers, and that for scholars who publish in conventional journals, deposit in an OA repository is not a superfluous extra step but a social and academic gift, even a responsibility, for which uncounted readers will be deeply grateful.  For scholars who publish in conventional journals and want to reach everyone who could benefit from their work, or everyone wishing to read, cite, apply, extend, or build on it, these stories are the best incentive to deposit that work in an OA repository. 'The Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication is very pleased to launch Your Story Matters, a new site featuring stories and anecdotes from users of DASH (Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard), Harvard's open-access repository. With nearly 1,000 user stories from 83 countries, 'Your Story Matters' offers moving evidence that DASH readers are deeply grateful for barrier-free access to Harvard research. Since DASH launched in 2009, users have downloaded its articles 4.6 million times, from every country on Earth. Even the subset of users who volunteered stories to DASH includes a remarkable variety of people , from faculty and students at institutions unable to afford the high prices of scholarly journals, to non-academics such as physicians, nurses, clergy, writers, journalists, public officials, social workers, political activists, retirees, and ordinary citizens in countries that try to limit what people may read. The visual interface of 'Your Story Matters,' and the easy way it supports rapid scrolling through stories from different countries, make vivid who is using DASH, from where, and with what impact....'"