High-Quality Science Benefits All

Open access publishing can help spread knowledge and move science forward.

Open access publishing can help researchers in the developing world to participate more actively in the scientific community. Alexander Brown from Springer shares his experience.

On 12 January 2012, a magnitude 7.0 earthquake struck Haiti, laying waste much of the island and its capital, Port-au-Prince. Three million people were affected, and an estimated 220,000 perished. Countless buildings were destroyed, including nine of the country’s 11 universities. As the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, Haiti was completely unprepared to cope with the devastation.

As charity fundraising events were arranged, and disaster relief agencies and volunteers descended on the Caribbean nation, Springer Science+Business Media, a major science publisher, threw its weight behind the recovery effort. [...]