Covid-19 Accelerates the Push for Open Access in Research

As the world struggled to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, Unesco called for open access to scientific information to facilitate research and information exchange on Covid-19. The international scientific community was quick to respond. Several organizations started sharing their research openly and major scientific journals dropped subscription fees for articles related to Covid-19, making them available to all. “If we can do this for Covid-19, which is a grand challenge, what about other challenges like respiratory disease, cancer and cardiovascular disease?” asked Stephan Kuster, head of institutional relations at Frontiers Media, a Switzerland-based publisher of peer-reviewed open-access scientific journals. “We want to make all science open in all fields.” Kuster was among the speakers at a virtual discussion hosted by Qatar National Library on October 22 in Doha.