Breaking down paywalls and building bridges across disciplines with open access
By: Semantic Scholar
Tags: Covid 19, Semantic Scholar, Research, Open Access, Global Health

Breaking down paywalls and building bridges across disciplines with open access Semantic Scholar Follow Mar 19 · 3 min read

Sebastian Kohlmeier is the Head of Operations for Semantic Scholar at the Allen Institute for AI, and Product Manager for CORD-19. Dr. Tayab Waseem is Chief Scientific Officer for Stability AI and is leading the flagship project CAIAC (Collective and Augmented Intelligence Against COVID-19). He has a PhD in Immunology and is a Public Policy Fellow for the American Association of Immunologists.

The need for open access to full-text research became critical as the world’s scientific community turned its focus to Covid-19.

Open and fast access to both emerging and historical scientific research is a critical factor in accelerating the scientific breakthroughs required to fight Covid-19 and future health crises. Looking back at the first year of the pandemic, we have some interesting insights into the significant benefits of open access to scientific research.

In response to the pandemic, some publishers offered free, open access to previously paywalled full-text research related to the coronavirus. For CORD-19, the Coronavirus Open Research Dataset (view paper) created by the Semantic Scholar team at AI2 along with other research organizations, individual agreements with each publisher were negotiated, and the content in some cases had Covid-specific licenses. Still today, one year after the initial release of the CORD-19 dataset, just 35.5% of the 482,000 papers in the dataset provide open access to the full text (171,000 papers in total).

In March 2020, CORD-19 was built and launched in just a week, compressing the hard, complicated of preparing the dataset into just days instead of the weeks or months such an undertaking usually requires. This fast turnaround provided access to open research in a machine readable-format that enabled the application of natural language processing methods, providing a foundation for the global AI research community to jumpstart its work on Covid-19 and build tools and insights medical researchers could use to further their work on the virus.

Open and fast access to a wide breadth of scientific knowledge fosters greater cross-disciplinary collaboration.

With the CORD-19 project, we’ve seen open access also help to attract millions of non-traditional contributors who otherwise lack access to paid journal subscriptions. When the dataset was released, an international coalition rose to the challenge of leveraging this important data including biomedical researchers, data scientists on Kaggle, policymakers, finance professionals, and the general public who aren’t otherwise affiliated with academic institutions and thus don’t have access to papers.

The pandemic has shown us that the way forward can’t be through medical knowledge alone. Open and fast access to a wide breadth of scientific knowledge fosters greater cross-disciplinary collaboration. Social, economic, and policy data are also needed to coordinate an effective response to a new threat like a pandemic, and to make meaningful change in our capabilities to address and combat these crises.

Researchers and scientists from every socioeconomic level deserve equal access to the world’s scientific knowledge. Valuable knowledge is trapped behind the “closed doors” of paid journals — not just for coronavirus, but for all scientific disciplines. Open access matters not just when mounting a fast, effective response to a pandemic, but also in fostering an inclusive and diverse scientific community over the long term.

Open access to scientific literature is essential in the quest to transform information into knowledge and insights that lead to medical breakthroughs. We encourage organizations with valuable intellectual property to grant open access to these resources, expanding and improving the collaborative power of researchers and scientists worldwide. After all, we are in this fight together.