Purdue e-Pubs Reaches Milestone With 3 Million Downloads From Across Globe

When Purdue civil engineering emeritus professor Sidney Diamond published his work on "Methods of Soil Stablilization for Erosion Control" in 1975, he expected it to primarily be read in Indiana. After all, assisting the state to improve its transportation infrastructure was and still is the primary goal of the Joint Transportation Research Program, which published Diamond's work.

Today, however, the readers of report JHRP-75/20 are as likely to be in India, Brazil and China as in Monticello or Frankfort, Ind. Thanks to Purdue e-Pubs, the university's online publishing system administered by Purdue Libraries, Diamond's research is helping practitioners worldwide to cheaply and safely reinforce dirt roadways made unstable by heavy rainfall.

Purdue Libraries announced Tuesday (Oct. 23) that "Methods of Soil Stabilization" was the 3 millionth download from Purdue e-Pubs, the open-access repository system that now contains more than 25,000 articles, reports, conference papers and theses written by university faculty, staff and students. Since July, the system has generated more than 500,000 new downloads, indicating an accelerating pace of use. Visitors came from 224 Indiana communities, every state in the nation, and more than 211 countries. Publishing new scholarship on Purdue e-Pubs is entirely free of charge for Purdue faculty...