The Levy Library Blog

COVID-19 and Open Access Publishing

COVID-19, much like the rise of the digital era, has changed to way landscape of scientific research and publishing. As this pandemic continues to completely alter our daily lives, the need to quickly communicate findings about the virus to the greater scientific community has never been greater. Even before the pandemic hit, the demand for more accessible publishing options, such as open access journals and preprint servers, was loud and clear. For the greater good of all, research should be reliable, reproducible, and have the broadest impact possible.

In our current reality that is 2020, research is being published at record turnaround speeds. Even journals who had previously not offered any open access options have sped up their processes and are now making their content available to all. One silver lining of the pandemic is that it has really brought into focus the need for more efficient communication when it comes to scientific research findings (while still being appropriately vetted). While there is no way to truly know what the future of publishing holds, we can hope that preprint papers and open access journals become staples in scientific research  - for the benefit of not just the biomedical communities but for global health. 

Preferred Mount Sinai resources: 

• COVID-19 papers by Mount Sinai authors
• Mount Sinai COVID-19 PlumX dashboard
• COVID-19 Research Collaborations by Elsevier

Further reading from external sources: 

• Open access: how COVID-19 will change the way research findings are shared
• Science, Open Data and the COVID-19 Pandemic
• Past coronavirus: an open-access future for academics
• Open Access and Altmetrics in the pandemic age: Forecast analysis on COVID-19 literature
• Open science: after the COVID-19 pandemic there can be no return to closed working