Three years ago this week, in celebration of Global Open Access Week, the Open Access Articles Collection was launched to house papers made available under the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy. In those three years, downloads have been initiated from all parts of the globe.

Only about 1/3 of the use is from the United States, with the rest widely distributed around the world. Some of the heaviest activity comes, unsurprisingly, from well-populated and research-intensive areas such as China (11%), India (6%), the UK (5%), France (3%), and Japan (3%). Canada and Mexico make up another 3.5% of use. But downloads have originated from nearly every country, including, looking just at those with names starting with “T”: Taiwan (2%), Tanzania, Thailand, Togo, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Turks and Caicos Islands, and Tuvalu.

Three years in, this evidence suggests that the faculty’s goal in creating the policy — to “disseminat[e] the fruits of its research and scholarship as widely as possible” — is being met.

This news is being reported in celebration of the third anniversary of the Open Access Articles Collection, which houses papers under the Policy, and Global Open Access Week, which runs from October 22 through 26.


For more information:
MIT Faculty Open Access Policy