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182 news posts in Open access

Open science policy

01 Apr 2022

Frontiers’ support for UKRI’s Open Access policy

We continue to support UKRI’s open access policy, which will see all peer-reviewed research articles resulting from its funding made universally and freely accessible to people everywhere from today. The spirit of Plan S and the open access movement continue to make progress. UKRI should be commended for its position and support of open access’s original model. Barriers to research by way of expensive paywalls impair scientific discovery. The rapid and free dissemination of research and data around COVID-19 resulted in the fastest vaccine development in human history. The same dynamic of international collaboration must be extended to all research on all critical societal challenges, such as cancer and climate change. UKRI’s policy is simple, effective and enforceable; and it provides a framework for scientific publishing that addresses the urgency of the challenges that confront society.  We can be optimistic that this policy will reinforce the growing call – by the Plan S signatories and others – to combat the efforts of subscription publishers to indefinitely extend the harmful status quo of paywalled access to knowledge, for example through the use of commercial tactics such as “transformative agreements.” Dr. Frederick Fenter, chief executive editor, Frontiers ENDS. Frontiers is the 3rd […]

Featured news

28 Oct 2021

For less than $10, anyone can now get up close and explore single cells in VR

By Colm Gorey, Science Communications Manager 3D rendered medically accurate illustration of a cancer cell (not representative of what’s seen using singlecellVR). Image: SciePro/Shutterstock A team of scientists has developed a free, open-access VR program that allows anyone to interact with single-cell datasets using a headset costing less than $10. Previous tools used to view single-cell data visualizations in VR have been limited to the most expensive hardware, costing upwards of $2,500. The team’s findings have been published in Frontiers in Genetics. While often thought of as being limited to expensive hardware for dedicated gamers, virtual reality (VR) has become a lot more affordable in recent years with entry-level hardware – such as Google Cardboard – costing less than $10. With this headset, anyone with a smartphone can place their device into the headset and view VR content through its large screen. With the barrier to entry now greatly reduced, scientists and engineers are trying to figure out ways of bringing VR to the masses and, potentially, using it to unlock breakthrough discoveries. One such team of researchers from some of the US’s top medical centers and institutions has now published a paper in Frontiers in Genetics documenting a VR […]