- The deadly pandemic has brought back a long-running debate about companies profiting from the publication of research often freely supplied by the author
- As the biggest names in the business respond to academics’ demands to bring down paywalls, new platforms are getting fresh studies out to the public
Medical researchers in Asia, Europe and the United States are working around the clock on ways to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, hunting for clues and crunching data from decades of studies on pathogens similar to the new coronavirus
The importance of that research was stressed on Friday when science authorities from 12 countries, including the US, Italy, and South Korea, released a statement urging corporate publishers of academic papers to make all relevant information openly and quickly available.
“[We] urge publishers to voluntarily agree to make their Covid-19 and coronavirus-related publications, and the available data supporting them, immediately accessible,” it said.