Adventures in new media Comments on open access from authors, funders, politicians and journalists Grace Baynes Science Communication Conference July 2006

A funders’ view of open access: Mark Walport, The Wellcome Trust “Now we can get rid of the ludicrous situation where the scientific community has to pay to look at the results of their own research.” “We are committed to achieving the maximum impact from the research we fund - that means making the findings accessible to those who most want to see them."

What politicians say about open access: Phil Willis, MP and Chairman of the House of Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology “The principle should be that if the tax payer pays for it, then they decide about access." U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman “Tax payer-funded research should be accessible to tax payers.” U.S. Senator John Cornyn “Making this information available to the public will lead to faster discoveries, innovations and cures”

What our authors say about: Sharing globally: "My first experience with your journal was a good one. Since my article was published last year, it… has led to a number of new collaborations with people around the world. Am I happy to have published online in a BioMed Central journal? You bet." Paula DeAngelis, PhD Rikshospitalet, Norway Molecular Cancer

What our authors say about: Sharing globally: “We have had an incredible response to our paper. We have had requests for protocols and plasmids from all over the world. This includes areas of Africa and the former USSR that we have never had requests from in the past. It is my belief that our papers and ideas are reaching many more scientists through the medium of BMC and open access." Thom Hughes Yale University Medical School USA BMC Neuroscience

What our authors say about: Fast publication “It was simply the fastest I have ever had a paper go from submission through review to publication.“ Greg Hurst University College London UK BMC Evolutionary Biology “The fastest publication after acceptance I ever had.” Axel Schlitt Martin Luther-University Nutrition & Metabolism

What our authors say about: Fast citation and high downloads “(Our article) has already been cited at least 8 times in the first 4 months after publication.“ Dario Alessi University of Dundee UK Journal of Biology “The article has so far had >14,000 accesses, i.e. about 55 hits per day since publication.“ Georgios Lyratzopoulos NHS England BMC Public Health

What our authors say about: Developing countries “Open Access journals are crucial….in improving access for those living and working in resource-poor settings. These journals are making an immense contribution towards bridging the knowledge-gap between economically rich and poor countries.” Joses M Kirigia World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa BMC Emergency Medicine, Annals of General Hospital Psychiatry

What our authors say about: Access anywhere: “An Internet cafe in the desert (they exist!) is all you need to read about the latest in science.” Bart GJ Knols International Atomic Energy Agency Published with: Malaria Journal, Journal of Circadian Rhythms

What our authors say about: Data sets and colour figures: “As more of our recent data have been derived from genomics methods, and we have been generating very large sets of images, we have found it difficult to present our work in the traditional journals. Even the process of submitting large data files is not always straightforward. However, it was easy to go through BioMed Central's submission process.” Connie Cepko Harvard Medical School and Howard Hughes Medical Institute, USA Genome Biology, BMC Genetics

What journalists say about open access: Tim Radford, former Science Editor, The Guardian “I am looking forward to Open Access changing the picture. I am looking forward to getting a better look at the kind of story that doesn't get into Nature and Science but is still potentially hugely entertaining.“ "What's the point of doing science if it's not freely available to everyone?” "I feel strongly that publicly funded information should be available freely and publicly. Most scientific information coming out of universities and government laboratories is financed, either directly or indirectly, by the taxpayer. So the public have already paid for it, upfront and in advance."

What journalists say about open access: Anjana Ahuja. Feature writer, The Times “Open access to material is essential for me to perform my job as a science journalist” “Members of the public should be able to access information at source, not just how the media choose to interpret it. That way, people can make up their own minds.“ “Denying the public access to scientific information only serves to heighten suspicion and mistrust….Scientific information is not for the elite. People pay for science through their taxes, and deserve to know what they're paying for.”

What journalists say about open access: David Whitehouse, BBC News Online Science Editor “It's really nice when you write a story to be able to have a link that sends readers straight to the original research paper. That is one of the things that the Internet is for and you can't do it in any other medium.”

Why do our authors choose to submit to BioMed Central journals? (based on our author survey) 1.Journal scope: 36% of our survey respondents "Instant and free open access online without registration hassles, an increasingly reputable journal in the field, and a broad scope to account for vast topics are just a few characteristics of BMC Medical Education." Shaheen Emmanuel Lakhan Harvard Medical School, USA BMC Medical Education

Why do our authors choose to submit to BioMed Central journals? 2.Open access: 32% of respondents “…of course having our own article available as open access is great, one of the key attractions of BMC Bioinformatics for myself and my colleagues." Steven Salzberg The Institute for Genomic Research, USA BMC Bioinformatics

Why do our authors choose to submit to BioMed Central journals? 3.Speed of publication: 31% of our respondents "The speed from acceptance to online access was remarkable, as was the efficiency of the Editorial staff…..Many thanks - I wish all journals operated in this way." Jonathan S. Duke-Cohan, Ph.D Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, USA Arthritis Research & Therapy "The speed and efficiency of the whole process is amazing!" Palwinder Mander University of Cambridge UK Journal of Neuroinflammation

More information & questions? Author quotes: Author survey: