Science at Collins

Welcome to day one of Open Access Week!

It seemed fitting to begin this week’s highlighted open access resources with PLoS Biology, the first PLoS journal. The goal of the peer-reviewed PLoS Biology is to feature ‘works of exceptional significance, originality, and relevance in all areas of biological science, from molecules to ecosystems, including works at the interface of other disciplines, such as chemistry, medicine, and mathematics.’

Not only does PLoS Biology make new, scientific work freely available, but all material is published under a Creative Commons attribution license, meaning that it’s easy to use material for teaching or further research.

 

Physics, an open-access publication recently debuted by the American Physical Society, aims to provide broadly readable highlights of recent research in the Physical Review journal series.

Three types of articles are published, including:

Viewpoints: Weekly essays of approximately 1000–1500 words that focus on a single Physical Review paper or PRL letter and put the work into broader context.

Trends: Monthly concise review articles (3000–4000 words in length) that survey a particular area and look for interesting developments in the field.

Synopses: (200 words) are staff-written distillations of interesting and important papers each week

What’s so important about this resource?

• It contextualizes recent research and explains its importance, making it easier for students to get into the physical literature.
• It makes it easy for researchers to learn about developments across fields and cross-pollinate ideas.