The inexorable rise of open access scientific publishing

A new study shows that the rise of open access publishing of academic research is faster than anyone had previously realised

Read all about it: academic publishing is changing faster than anyone has realised, according to a new study reported today in BMC Medicine.

Before 2000 the vast majority of research papers were published in journals that could only be read by academics if they — or their university libraries — paid a subscription. But since the turn of the millennium, the growth of the world wide web has been accompanied by the emergence of open access publishing, by which research papers are made freely available online. According to results published today by Laasko and Björk, over half* of all research papers may now be available through open access.

The academic publishing game has changed irrevocably...