Access to scientific literature: Legitimate channels

摘要

Paywalls imposed by publishing firms limit access to scientific literature. Individual researchers and institutions with limited funding lack access to a major chunk of the scientific literature, which may affect research quality. As per one figure, only 13% of all articles indexed in PubMed are available for free through PubMed Central (PMC).1'1 Two approaches were employed to improve access to literature. One approach was hybrid open access model, wherein authors were provided the option of making papers open access at the time of acceptance of the manuscript. This was subject to payment of article processing charges (APCs). Unfortunately, APCs often run into thousands of dollars and are economically impracticable for most researchers. In some countries, there was an impetus from the government to make every government funded research open access after a certain period. While this was a welcome move, it was restricted to certain countries only. On similar lines, Plan S was launched by cOAlition S, an international consortium of health researchers in September 2018.|2' Multiple national funding agencies joined hands together with a proposal that any research funded by them should be made open access immediately. However, this proposal is pending implementation.