Open Access Facilitates Data Discovery, Was Instrumental During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Grows in Usage for Reference, Journal Databases

Open Access Facilitates Data Discovery, Was Instrumental During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Grows in Usage for Reference, Journal Databases
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  • According to a recent bioRxiv preprint, authored by Benjamin Tendler et al. and published on June 22, 2021, Open Access makes inroads in the brain research field via the UK-based Digital Brain Bank Open Access to the contents of this database provides curated and interactive access to high-resolution post-mortem neuroimaging datasets (NewsRX, 2021a).
  • In Turkey, the COVID-19 pandemic period has increased the awareness of Open Access among researchers, such as professors and lecturers. A survey study based on responses from 151 research participants has indicated that only 49% of local academics publish in Open Access journals, even though 75% of respondents were found to take regular recourse to Open Access article for research purposes. This can be indicative of structural barriers to a further adoption of Open Access in emerging markets (NewsRX, 2021b).
  • A review article has probed the relevance of Open Access for reference sources, such as scholarly encyclopedias, since it puts a stress on the need to remove the cost-related hurdles to basic knowledge. The pandemic period has accentuated subscription-based inequities in access to digital or print copies of scholarly materials. Conversely, Open Access to these materials is highly likely to increase their digital visibility and broad relevance, especially for specialist fields of research, such as musicology studies. In this respect, Subscribe-to-Open (S2O) models can be among the future avenues for the evolution of specialized encyclopedic resources, as they can facilitate the conversion of existing publication series into Open Access (NewsRX, 2021d).
  • As a recent psyArxiv preprint paper by Mike Morrison, Kelsey Merlo and Zach Woessner published on June 12, 2021, argues, preprints hosted at digital platforms can further increase the impact of scholarly conferences, which showcases the importance of Open Access for scientific research (NewsRX, 2021c).
  • Therefore, it is not inconceivable that the development of the Open Access sector can also facilitate changes in the academic value systems that scholarly publishing processes involve, such as in terms of impact factors applied to the evaluation of scholarly performance. Open Access may also contribute to the inclusion of underrepresented or marginalized groups into the global scientific community (NewsRX, 2021e).

By Pablo Markin


References

NewsRX. (2021a). "The Digital Brain Bank: an open access platform for post-mortem datasets." Life Science Weekly, 6 July 2021, p. 6956. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A667361080/AONE?u=lirn17237&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=a637f3fa. Accessed 8 July 2021.

NewsRX. (2021b). "Findings on COVID-19 Detailed by Investigators at Munzur University (Academicians' Awareness, Attitude, and Use of Open Access During the Covid-19 Pandemic)." Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, 4 July 2021, p. 357. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A666623521/AONE?u=lirn17237&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=ab2d25a9. Accessed 8 July 2021.

NewsRX. (2021c). "How to boost the impact of scientific conferences." Psychology & Psychiatry Journal, 3 July 2021, p. 469. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A666635421/AONE?u=lirn17237&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=92217927. Accessed 8 July 2021.

NewsRX. (2021d). "New Findings from Emory University in CDC and FDA Provides New Insights (An Open Access Scholarly Encyclopedia for Music: a Call To Action)." Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, 4 July 2021, p. 1406. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A666623849/AONE?u=lirn17237&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=6589a0a2. Accessed 8 July 2021.

NewsRX. (2021e). "A push for a shift in the value system that defines 'impact' and 'success'." Medical Letter on the CDC & FDA, 4 July 2021, p. 1299. Gale Academic OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A666623149/AONE?u=lirn17237&sid=bookmark-AONE&xid=7c177df3. Accessed 8 July 2021.

 


Featured Image Credits: Embryo architecture in seed (a) by Lara Demonsais, University of Geneva, Switzerland, April 16, 2018 | © Courtesy of Lara Demonsais /SNSF Scientific Image Competition /Flickr.

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