The future of scholarly publishing is open and making universal access to scientific research is a priority for the industry.
From our own data we know that scientific articles published on an open access (OA) basis are downloaded 80 per cent more and cited 30 per cent more than articles behind a paywall, so the benefits to scientific discovery and progress are significant and becoming widely recognised.
At the heart of the maturing OA publishing model lies the principle that the research data underpinning the findings presented in published articles should also be openly accessible. The transparency afforded by the public sharing of research data is arguably one of the key elements to ensuring integrity and reproducibility of research. Making it openly available alongside research publications allows other researchers, and society as a whole, to scrutinise results and assess the validity of scientific claims.
