Buttons created by students during International Open Access Week
What is the impact of open access? For the past five days we have celebrated International Open Access Week and attempted to answer this question by highlighting the impact of Open Access on individual authors, in their own words.
Impact can mean success in terms of views and downloads. Dr. Anthony Martin, author of Earliest known Gondwanan bird tracks: Wonthaggi Formation (Early Cretaceous), Victoria, Australia, noted that when the article was published by PLOS the resulting press release received more than 1,000 views less than 24 hours after its publication. “I’m sure this success is directly related to its being linked in Carol Clark’s news release, Emory Report story, and subsequent international media, and its availability as an open access article,” Dr. Martin said.
The most significant impact of this work is that now patients and families can access this work, download it and share it widely.” – Dr. Sharron Close, Assistant Professor in the Nell Hodgson Woodruff School of Nursing.
Impact can also mean getting research into the hands of those who need it most. Dr. Sharron Close said “At issue for patients and parents, is lack of direct access to the medical literature unless it is open access.” Dr. Close co-authored the article “Evidence-based recommendations for delivering the diagnosis of X & Y multisomies in children, adolescents and young adults” with Kirsten Riggan, Kelly Ormond, and Megan Allyse. “This manuscript came about due to an expressed need by parents and patients to explain and understand sex chromosome aneuploidy diagnosis and how the diagnostic news of these X & Y multisomies is shared,” she said. “The most significant impact of this work is that now patients and families can access this work, download it and share it widely with extended family, physicians and other important individuals involved in the lives of those with X & Y chromosome trisomies.”
Publishing open access can lead to collaboration across institutions, as Dr. Jed Diekfuss discovered after the article he co-authored with Dr. Allen Champagne of Duke University, “Quantitative susceptibility and T1ρ mapping of knee articular cartilage at 3T,” was published online under a creative commons licensing agreement (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0). “Sharing of our article has already led to two new collaborations with faculty from different institutions seeking to jointly translate these preliminary findings into larger studies and subsequent extramural funding,” said Dr. Diekfuss.
…as an early-stage investigator and junior faculty, it is valuable to have institutional support for disseminating new findings to appropriate journals.” – Dr. Jed Diekfuss, Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopaedics, Emory School of Medicine.
Of equal importance are the services that make publishing open access possible. Each of the articles we highlighted during this week were made openly available by a grant from the Emory Open Access Publishing Fund. Dr. Diekfuss expressed his gratitude for this opportunity, saying, “as an early-stage investigator and junior faculty, it is valuable to have institutional support for disseminating new findings to appropriate journals in lockstep with larger data-sharing and open access research initiatives.”
Dr. Azeem Kaka is another grantee. Dr. Kaka, along with Melissa Oh, Nikhil Vettikattu, Harry Baddour, Jennifer Gross, Brian Boyce, Mihir Patel, Arturo Solares, Jackson Vuncannon, and Nikki Schmitt, published the article “Submental island flaps for lateral reconstruction: Technical refinements for optimal outcomes and resource efficiency” with assistance from the Emory Open Access Publishing Fund. “We really appreciate the Open Access fund!” wrote Dr. Nikki Schmitt. “It has certainly facilitated our ability to engage with medical students and residents at Emory, making it easier and faster to publish and highlight their work.”
I am deeply committed to ensuring that my work is available to the communities in which I work inside the US and beyond.” – Dr. Dabney Evans, Director of the Center for Humanitarian Emergencies at Emory.
The impact of Open Access and the services that make it possible can realize a researcher’s desire to widen and diversify their audience. Dr. Dabney Evans perhaps said it best, “As a global health scholar, I am deeply committed to ensuring that my work is available to the communities in which I work inside the US and beyond.” Together with Emory researchers Jocelyn Pawcio, Kathryn Wyckoff, and Lee Wilkers, Dr. Evans published the article “And then the person sort of just drops off the radar…”: Barriers in the transition from hospital to community-based care among survivors of intimate partner violence in Metropolitan Atlanta” with assistance from the Emory Open Access Publishing Fund. “The Emory Open Access fund has allowed me to make sure that the public are included in public health by facilitating the dissemination of my scientific work freely.”
To view open access articles published by Emory research with assistance from the Emory Open Access Publishing Fund, please visit our site Open Access at Emory.
—Jennifer Townes, Open Access Librarian