Open Access Accelerating Open Science

Open access (OA) publishing is no longer an alien term. The OA movement has gained attention and will gain more in the years to come. As increasing numbers of people and organizations transition to an open model of knowledge dissemination, it is obligatory to start voicing out for global issues that require immediate attention.

Open Access and Open Science

IOP Publishing has announced that it’s making the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) journal Nuclear Fusion (NF) fully open access for scientists and the public. Many publishers have taken steps to shift to open access. Policies that accommodate OA publishing like the UK Research and Innovation’s (UKRI) OA policy and National Science Foundation’s (NSF) green OA policy are on the rise. Open resource platforms have been gaining momentum post pandemic.

Furthermore, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) amended the U.S. policy guidance to make the results of taxpayer-supported research available to the American public immediately, at no cost.

The following graph shows that there has been great acceptance of OA between 2017 and 2021 in these leading research countries, mainly in the United States and Canada.

Ref: Moving towards an Open Access future | Dimensions     

However, the myth that OA does not mean prestigious is still prevalent among the masses. The Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ) lists all the high-quality, peer-reviewed journals that are on par with traditional journals but with added benefits. OA not only applies to publications but also to other research outputs like data sets, software, and tools that can reduce redundancy in research.

Recent Trends in Open Science

The Center for Open Science’s stated mission is this: “We envision a future scholarly community in which the process, content, and outcomes of research are openly accessible by default.” Open Science then is about fostering an ecosystem based on the principles of openness throughout the whole research cycle, including sharing, peer review and collaboration, and removal of any barriers that impede these objectives.

The reason behind the movement is simply about contributing toward the public good. Scientific outcomes of public research are for the use and benefit of the community. It then becomes a moral imperative for science to be open to benefit society at large.

Another key trend in OA scholarly publishing is the inclusion of sustainability initiatives.

Environmental policies including e-communication, e-commute, digitization, reducing, and reusing toward becoming carbon neutral or carbon negative are being framed and followed in many publishing companies.

In keeping with this trend, it is now time to reveal . . .

The Theme for Open Access Week 2022: Open for Climate Justice

Climate, being the single-most ubiquitous concern on every nation and every industry’s radar, has been chosen as this year’s theme: “Climate Justice”—a hard-hitting categorical acknowledgment of the challenge. The movement is to make openness the fulcrum for all discussions and events around this critical fact and sharing of implementable and effective solutions to combat any further injustice, at both the local and global levels.

Open Access Week 2022 spreads awareness about the benefits of OA and why unrestricted access to knowledge is crucial for research developments in all fields of study. The theme for OA Week 2022 is “Open for Climate Justice.” It is an invitation to make resources open and utilize them to collaborate and address the impact of climate change. It demonstrates how open science can tackle the issues pertaining to this subject with ease. The official hashtag is #OAweek.

Amnet and Open Access

Amnet is an ardent supporter of open science. With decades of experience and in-depth knowledge about the publishing industry, Amnet has curated services for the OA community: https://enableoa.amnet.com/. EnableOA, our state-of-the-art OA publishing framework, aims to offer a digital publishing platform with an entire range of resources and tools. Our technabled solutions are efficient, easy to use, and realize the full potential of innovations.