Approximately half of RMH authored publications are freely available to read, with a gradually increasing trend.
But that means half our output is behind paywalls, where many potential readers cannot access it.
Open access (OA) rates increased in 2020 due to publishers making COVID related research freely available. This may not be an enduring change.
Articles that are open access have higher citation and download rates than articles behind paywalls (1).
Research is also more likely to be used commercially if it is OA.
Data source: Lens.org
You can check your publishers OA policies at the Sherpa Romeo website.
Further reading: Wikipedia - Open Access
Piwowar H, Priem J, Larivière V, et al. The state of OA: a large-scale analysis of the prevalence and impact of Open Access articles. PeerJ. 2018;6:e4375. Published 2018 Feb 13. doi:10.7717/peerj.4375
Swan, Alma (2010). "The Open Access citation advantage: Studies and results to date". eprints.soton.ac.uk. Alma Swan. Archived from the original on 3 January 2020. Retrieved 3 January 2020.
Davis, P. M. Open access, readership, citations: a randomized controlled trial of scientific journal publishing. FASEB J. 25, 2129– 2134 (2011). www.fasebj.org