University of Iowa pushes for ‘open access’ to research | TheGazette

"A Maryland 16-year-old, inspired by the death of a family friend, recently developed a rapid and inexpensive screening method using Google, Wikipedia and YouTube for certain cancers. The method has been called faster, cheaper and more sensitive than current diagnostic tests. But Jack Thomas Andraka might not have made the discovery were it not for a growing movement toward scholarly openness. 'Things like that can happen when there aren’t pay walls and barriers to scientific research,' said Chris Diaz, University of Iowa residency librarian for scholarly communications and collections. 'Open access' publishing is breaking down traditional barriers imposed through subscription-based scientific journals by creating new opportunities for ideas and research to be freely shared online. Open access publishers such as the Public Library of Science, BioMed Central and PeerJ are among those in the research community pushing to make open access to scholarly communication the norm. The concept is gaining ground nationwide and in Iowa, and the UI this year launched a financial-aid program to encourage its scholars to publish research in open access platforms instead of just subscription-based journals. The UI’s 'open access fund' provides up to $3,000 per UI applicant to help pay processing fees related to open access publishing. The hope is to get more people familiar with the model and using it, said Michael Wright, UI interim associate university librarian for collections and scholarly communications. 'The goal is to promote open access scholarship and open access availability of ideas,' Wright said. 'So much of this research is taxpayer funded. This makes it freely available to taxpayers' ..."