The academic world is slowly waking up to this new paradigm, and open-access journals are cracking the rigid scholarly publishing system.

Traditionally, reading the latest research requires academic libraries to pay high subscription fees for electronic journals that are available exclusively to students, faculty, and staff and for paper versions housed on campus.

However, more eyes than usual will be able to read WVU’s latest research about infant health thanks to how the researchers chose to publish their findings.

After Dr. Giovanni Piedimonte and his team recently made discoveries about how respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) affects infants, they published their work in PLoS (Public Library of Science) ONE, an open-access journal. That choice made their findings available to anyone with access to the Internet.

“If a paper is accepted, everyone on the planet can access the paper with no charge,” Piedimonte said. “They can be in Pakistan or Afghanistan and still be able to read the paper. The audience is enormous.”

Open-access journals are peer-reviewed and provide free, online access to their articles. Rather than charging subscription fees to readers or libraries, they cover their costs through publication fees to authors. And because of limited copyright and licensing restrictions, the articles are available to anyone to download, copy, and distribute for research purposes.

The wider audience maximizes the research impact. Susan Arnold, Director of the Health Sciences Library, said that in 2008 the British Medical Journal reported that open-access articles received a significantly higher number of downloads from more visitors than their traditional subscription counterparts. An article published recently in Science showed that when articles were made freely available within two years of publication, their citations increased by almost 20 percent.

Those statistics have held true for Piedimonte. In just six weeks, according to PLoS records, Piedimonte’s research had been viewed about 630 times and more than 90 people had downloaded it. Piedimonte said a previous paper by his research team had more than 3,000 readers. Two of the Public Library of Science journals, PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine, have been credited with a double-digit impact factor.

“The visibility and impact you can achieve by publishing in a good open-access journal like PLoS is far superior to other journals of the same type,” Piedimonte said.

The additional visibility helps researchers to fulfill WVU’s mission as a land grant university. In Piedimonte’s case, pediatricians throughout West Virginia and the world will better understand a potentially fatal respiratory infection because they can read the article.

“What if you are a physician who works in an underserved area or in a rural area? The open-access medium allows these people to be in touch with cutting edge research in clinical medicine in real time in a way they wouldn’t be able to otherwise,” Piedimonte said.

Dr. Richard Crout, Associate Dean for Research in the School of Dentistry and Professor in the Department of Periodontics, has witnessed the effect of a lack of access to new research on a trip to the Soviet Union. Crout talked with a doctor in Kiev, Ukraine, who had spent four years studying an issue not knowing that it had already been resolved.

“We all can learn from what other people are doing,” Crout said. “If it’s something similar, we work together.”

Another advantage of open-access publishing is a shorter length of time between acceptance and publication. Piedimonte is still waiting for a traditional journal to publish an article that he submitted two months before submitting his RSV article.

“This benefits the entire research community by accelerating dissemination of research findings,” Arnold said.

The boost, though, extends beyond the labs and professors’ offices to undergraduates and others new to research. Linda Blake, Electronic Journals Librarian, said the typical freshman or sophomore lacks savvy research skills and tries to avoid going to great lengths to find information they need. They may know Interlibrary Loan exists, but they want the article immediately, not in a few days.

“The human inclination is to go the easiest route,” Blake said. “If the article is right there, they will use it rather than pursue something that is not easily available.”

WVU and the WVU Libraries have actively advocated for open-access publishing. The Libraries, the Office of Information Technology, and the Office of Academic Affairs and Research collaborated to establish an institutional repository containing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (ETDs), Electronic undergraduate Honors Theses (EHTs) and the Electronic Scholarly Research Archives (ESRA), a faculty research portal.
Along with bringing nationally known speakers to campus, the Libraries sponsored an Open Access Day in 2008 and will sponsor a weeklong program from Oct. 19-23. For more information about Open-Access Week: www.libraries.wvu.edu/open-access.

To encourage faculty to publish their work in open-access journals, the WVU Libraries purchased institutional memberships in BioMed Central and Public Library of Science which reduce the required publication fees for WVU faculty researchers. The Libraries also negotiated favorable terms for WVU authors in Oxford University Press open-access journals.

“Open-access is one of the WVU Libraries’ newer initiatives,” Libraries Dean Frances O’Brien said. “We’re interested in improving access to research. We know these issues are complex and it will take a lot of people working together to change the system, but I think it’s an appropriate direction for a land-grant university.”

Penny Pugh

Presenting the honor during the organization’s fall conference, the Awards Committee praised Pugh for her accomplishments as a reference librarian and as a leader in WVLA.

“Her strong work ethic, her depth of knowledge, outstanding leadership and willingness to find solutions through collaborative work are well-known attributes,” the nomination letter reads. “Penny has made remarkable contributions to libraries through her work.”

Pugh came to the WVU Libraries Reference Department as a staff librarian in 1986 and worked her way up to head of reference. She credits her career choice to a love of reading that ignited when a bookmobile stopped at her elementary school. The decision solidified while she was an undergraduate at WVU.

“I became enamored with the idea of libraries as a place where knowledge is stored so every new generation doesn’t have to start fresh,” Pugh said. “We can build on and advance our civilization. We don’t have to invent penicillin again.”

Pugh has strived to help keep the WVU Libraries as a valuable resource in the constantly changing technological world. When she started her career, index cards and the thick green volumes of the Reader’s Guide to Periodical Literature were staples for any good researcher. Today, users can read electronic journals from home and chat online with librarians.

Keeping on the forefront, Pugh provided leadership to develop the WVU Libraries’ first Web site and helped to create the Reference Online page, a listing of electronic resources. She has served as chair of the electronic resources committee for the past 15 years. She remains a consistent innovator, adding resources such as an instant message service, Ask-a-Librarian, and an application that allows users to text themselves book call numbers.

Over the years, Pugh has also gained a reputation as an outstanding teacher. She has taught numerous sections of a library course, ULIB 101: Introduction to Library Research; has given lectures for credit courses in several disciplines; and has offered many faculty workshops.

Most recently, she worked with the WVU Writing Center and Academic Resource Centers to bring free tutoring sessions to the Downtown Campus Library five evenings every week.

During her term as WVLA president from 2004-2005, Pugh worked to increase membership and produce outstanding fall and spring conferences. She also served as the spokesperson for the organization when dealing with the media and elected officials in Charleston. She previously served as chair of WVLA’s Academic Division and as a member of the Executive Board.

“I’m passionate about libraries, and I’m proud to advocate for them through my work in the association. Libraries are institutions that embody the best of our society, and librarians from all types of libraries share common values – literacy, education, and learning,” Pugh said. “I would hate to live in a society where there were no libraries.”

On Oct. 16, 1859, the abolitionist and a small band of loyal followers seized control of the Harpers Ferry Armory in a plot to build an army to overthrow the South and free the slaves. Although his plan failed, the incident ignited a debate about slavery that spread across the nation and divided the country.

John Brown on Trial, sketched by David Hunter Strother

“John Brown’s Raid is one of the most poignant events in American history,” said John Cuthbert, curator of the West Virginia and Regional History Collection. “Perhaps more than any other single act, it led to the outbreak of the Civil War. John Brown has been cited as the person who contributed more than any other to the start of the Civil War.”

The exhibit contains original sketches and eyewitness accounts by David Hunter Strother, a popular artist and writer of the day. A member of the local aristocracy, Strother had unique access to Brown throughout the ordeal. Arriving in Harpers Ferry within 36 hours of the raid, he gained close contact with Brown and some of his co-conspirators.

Strother saw them lying wounded on the floor of a makeshift jail, before they received medical attention. And, even before authorities had the chance to extensively question Brown, Strother talked with him about his failed plot. He made many sketches of Brown and his men at that time and then later during Brown’s trial and execution.

“David Hunter Strother was a gifted writer and artist,” Cuthbert said. “If you wanted to find one person to document what happened there, I don’t think you could find a better person than Strother.”

A traveling version of the exhibit is currently on view at the Jefferson County Museum in Charles Town.

Connect to ebrary from the Libraries trial database web site.

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