Blog.1DegreeBio.org | Open Access - The Academic Spring for Knowledge

“... open access journals are becoming a more favorable destination for academics to publish their work, providing it freely to the public without any subscription. It is indeed the "academic spring" for free access of knowledge and information globally.  Two famous examples of such innovation are PLoS ONE and BioMed Central. Open access still uses rigid peer-reviewing for all submitted articles but they charge the authors for publishing their work rather than charging a fee to those wanting to view the articles. Thus it is more likely that the authors will see their papers read globally and accessed freely whenever and wherever; which will certainly allow for more citation and better integration of their work into the overall structure of science.  PLoS ONE clearly indicates in its guidelines that the author's ability to pay should not influence his/her ability to be published and so they offer a waiver to anyone who can't afford the fee. This will undoubtedly benefit researchers in developing countries or at smaller institutions who cannot afford to pay for their work to be published. The open access innovative model will also make science accessible to the public rather than the old ‘members only’ model.  Recently; around 9,000 researchers signed up to boycott journals that restrict free sharing as part of a campaign coined the "academic spring" by followers due to its capacity to reform the spread of knowledge.¹ What made this campaign even more recognized was the intervention of Wellcome Trust, the largest funder of medical research In UK, by forcing academics it funds to publish in open online journals. They are stressing that researchers who do not make their work open access could be sanctioned in future grant applications to the charity. Sir Mark Walport, the director of Wellcome Trust, revealed that the organization will even launch a high caliber scientific journal called eLife that would compete directly with top-tier publications, allowing articles to be viewed online without cost as soon as they are published.¹  It is amusing to consider the argument that publishers of highly profitable academic journals, those who are not open access, keep pointing out to defend their policies. They argue that the cost is a necessity to sustain a high-quality peer review process... They are also failing to realize that open access submissions are also strictly peer-reviewed before publication. Of course such publishers are always worried about profits, but they somehow fail to see that PLoS ONE is now the largest scientific journal in the world, maintaining a high impact factor, and continuing to make a profit despite (or perhaps due in part to) its open access stance on science.”