One of the most exciting signs of progress in the Open Access (OA) movement is the widespread lay media coverage of discoveries published via OA. On my last post, I touched briefly on the subject, however it is clearly a topic that requires in-depth discussion and analysis.
Over at PLoS ONE there is an In the News section, with a different paper highlighted each week. The currently spotlighted paper has clearly received extensive coverage, with discussion popping up in places such as BBC News, The Guardian, and The New York Times. However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg, as media coverage of OA articles has been quite extensive. Science News discusses on average two to three papers published in PLoS ONE alone every single issue. The total number of OA papers discussed in this periodical is even higher.
This brings us to one of the key advantages of OA. Suppose that a scientist reads an exciting article in a periodical concerning a recently published paper, and hurries online to find its location. With closed access, the potential reader must jump through a series of hoops, such as creating a profile, logging in, purchasing the article (the list goes on) and very well may abandon the pursuit. In stark contrast, if that paper is OA, the potential reader nearly immediately becomes an actual reader who can spread the word or advance the research.
Nathan
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