I hope most of you have heard of ECS’s initiative to Free the Science. Our goal is to make our high quality, peer-reviewed research in the ECS Digital Library freely available to everyone. That means authors can publish for free and anyone, anywhere, can read papers, abstracts, or proceedings without a subscription. We think it will revolutionize the progress made in our niche of science and we hope it will set an example for other publishers, especially those that are nonprofit societies, to pursue a more robust open access business model.
As we celebrate our 115th anniversary this year, Free the Science couldn’t be more important. The research that YOU do has the ability to solve some of the world’s most pressing issues from energy independence and clean water, to safety and medical technology. We don’t think it’s too bold to say that our science can save lives and ensure our planet’s sustainability. And that’s why, more than ever, we must work together to Free the Science.
But our initiative to Free the Science is hardly free. While we want to open access to science there is a cost to producing peer-reviewed research. It takes time, money, and know-how to disseminate quality scientific research. After 115 years in the field of scholarly communications, ECS has the knowledge and bandwidth to implement such an initiative, but we need the support of our membership to make it happen.
As an author in our journals, an ECS meeting attendee, or an avid reader you know how critical the knowledge that we share is to making advancements in our field and an impacting on our world. Last year, we had over 3.2 million full-text article downloads, and we are on track to surpass that record number this year. When we Free the Science, imagine how many more people will access and build upon your work.
Now is the time to support ECS by making a donation or becoming a member today. Support the next generation of scientists, our lively and substantive meeting programs, and ECS’s initiative to Free the Science that aims to make our high quality, peer-reviewed research freely available to everyone.
