Open Access Journals And Data: Opportunities for the Future

Bryan Vickery, Deputy Publisher, BioMed Central, UK

Too often our talented researchers are reinventing the wheel because access to the required
information is unavailable; negative results are ignored, associated data-sets are often
not published, or the article is locked behind subscription/copyright barriers.

Indeed, as the boundaries between scientific disciplines blur, and new cross-disciplinary areas
emerge, many scientists find that their libraries do not subscribe to the "now necessary" journal/
database titles, nor can they because of cost. However, the Internet allows for data-rich
articles that are fully linked, rapid dissemination and sharing, and open review/discussion.
Major funding organisations including the National Institutes of Health (US) and the Wellcome
Trust (UK), who often have no rights to access their own research articles, are now
insisting on global open access to the research results from investigations they fund. Open
access is defined in three parts: firstly, the articles are freely and universally accessible online;
secondly, authors retain copyright to their work; and thirdly, all articles are archived in
an open access repository and as such will allow anyone, anywhere, including the public and
industry, unhindered access to the research they need.

This talk will take a look at the current state of open access efforts, and the future opportunities
afforded us by the growth in open access publishing and open data sources. BioMed Central
is an independent publishing house committed to providing immediate free access to peer
reviewed biomedical research. All the original research articles in journals published by
BioMed Central are immediately and permanently available online without charge or any
other barriers to access. This commitment is based on the view that open access to research is
central to rapid and efficient progress in science and that subscription-based access to research
is hindering rather than helping scientific communication.