Here's a mother of a child with a sternal cleft, "looking for scientific information and support to make an informed decision about the surgical intervention", and documenting her efforts online. After trying several other routes to answers, her most promising leads have come from OA journals.
It's impossible to argue that OA to peer-reviewed research doesn't help lay readers, even if the primary beneficiaries are professional researchers. Also see our past posts on OA for lay readers.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/05/2009 05:02:00 PM.
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.
