The value of Open Access
Monday, September 26, 2005
- Open Access journals get impressive impact factors-
Journals published by BioMed Central have again received impact factors that compare well with equivalent subscription titles, with five titles in the top five of their specialty. The high impact factors for these journals affirm that they are respected by researchers, and are fast becoming the place for authors to submit important research findings.
- in-cites - Journals - Atmospheric Chemistry & Physics-
Some of the most important advantages of free online availability of scientific information are the opportunities for enhanced scientific quality assurance, which are unfortunately often neglected in discussions and reports about open access publishing
- We get letters (2)-
Howard and Melissa of Boca Raton, Florida, were the happy new parents of twins, a boy and a girl named Andrew and Carly. Though they were preemies born in mid-July, both babies were safely home two weeks later. “Then suddenly,” Howard wrote to us, “Andrew had to be admitted to the ER. We thought it was for something little - but the doctors discovered something major.”… “We were shaken and quite upset,” Howard recalls. “Armed with only a cell phone - and a very low battery - I was able to Google [hemoglobin "premature infant"] and found a medical journal article claiming that it’s perfectly normal for preemies to have their hemoglobin levels drop to 7 between the first and third months of life, and apparently this is especially true with twins.” He showed the mobile screen citing this fact to the neonatalogists, who went off to research the issue for a couple of hours. They returned, says Howard, “and sheepishly admitted that our son was indeed fine - no treatment was necessary.”
Howard concludes, “Google literally saved our newborn son from having to endure an extremely dangerous, and totally unnecessary, blood transfusion. Melissa and I really appreciated your help with this one.”
Peter Suber is the OA god.
Open Access — laura
