Yesterday news broke that a new species of mouse had been discovered in Cyprus. Mark Stoeckle reports that 193 mainstream news media picked up the story --and that the original peer-reviewed article is only accessible to subscribers. His conclusion:
Limited access limits taxonomy....The press coverage of this article demonstrates discovery of new species is of wide public interest, and there are many persons who would want to read beyond the headlines. As it stands, readership is often limited to a small number of specialists, guaranteeing continuing obscurity for taxonomic science. Open access for new species descriptions could help increase visibility and willingness to fund taxonomic science.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/13/2006 09:56:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
