Open Issues with Open Access Publication | The American Journal of Medicine Blog

"Open access journals have grown in number over the last decade. In 2000, there were fewer than 800 such journals, and fewer than 20,000 such papers. By 2009, nearly 5000 open access journals were being published annually, containing almost 200,000 articles.(1) The rise of the open access model point has been based largely on its strengths: allowing scientists and the public free access to research, efficient navigation and mapping of knowledge, dissemination of scholarship, and increasing recognition and citation of research findings. However, despite these formidable virtues, (2) sources of concern remain. The first is the growing portion of research funds being spent on open access publication fees, and the second is a cottage industry of low impact, low oversight journals...."