Downloads of open access articles hit new monthly peak

Over 180,000 downloads in October

dspace screen shot de weck article heavy downloadsIn October 2015, downloads of the 18,000 articles deposited in DSpace@MIT in accordance with the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy topped 180,000. This was a new record, leaping beyond the prior bar of 123,000 set in September.

Among the top 10 most downloaded articles for the month of October 2015 were:

Readers downloading these papers come from many walks of life. One recent reader wrote:

I am a ‘semi-retired’ physicist who is attempting to keep up with the literature in the wild west ( Idaho Falls, Idaho ) It is very difficult to obtain original journal access and inter-library access is very slow ( usually ).

Other readers’ comments are available through the oastories.mit.edu web service, where you can click on a map and see what readers from a particular country are saying.

To view download statistics, visit the Open Access Article Statistics site.

To have your article appear in these statistics, MIT authors may deposit a manuscript to the collection by logging in to DSpace@MIT.

This news is part of a series of regular reports on activity related to the Open Access Articles Collection in DSpace@MIT, which was launched in October 2009 to house articles deposited in association with the MIT Faculty Open Access Policy.

Ellen Finnie Duranceau, Program Manager, Scholarly Publishing, Copyright & Licensing, MIT Libraries