Using material science to tackle climate change
We are exploring the impact OA has around the globe by speaking to researchers from Argentina, Australia, Germany, Japan and the United States.
When Dr. Dorna Esrafilzadeh, of the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Australia, published an open access article on , it attracted worldwide interest from a broad audience. She tells us about her experience of publishing OA.
鈥淭he public has strong opinions on climate change and they actually closely follow advances in the technology,鈥 Dorna says. 鈥淪o publishing open access helps them to know what鈥檚 happening right now and what universities in Australia are doing.鈥
鈥淥ur recent work describes a new liquid metal electrocatalyst that facilitates the room temperature reduction of carbon dioxide to a layered solid carbonaceous species,鈥 she adds. 鈥淲e also showed that the carbon produced can be used in renewable energy applications.鈥
Developing new carbon capture technologies could potentially play a key role in helping to ensure a future stable climate. So a major driver for her decision to publish in an open access journal was to reach a wider audience than might otherwise be possible.
Wider impact
The article鈥檚 back up this decision 鈥 with an overall Altmetric score of 944, it has so far been accessed 117K times, received 530+ tweets across five continents, and coverage in 11 blogs and 71 news stories.
鈥淲hen the news came out that everyone could go to it and download it that was fabulous,鈥 she says. 鈥淚鈥檝e had emails and requests from a broad range of the community 鈥 from high school students, researchers and even from an artist who wanted to work on a picture of carbon capture.鈥
It has also sparked new collaborations 鈥 including opportunities to translate the research into practical applications.
鈥淲e ended up having a follow-up project with other academies to develop ways to increase our device efficiency,鈥 says Dorna. 鈥淎nd we now have an industrial partner who we are working closely with towards the commercialization of the idea.鈥
Faster publication
This article is the fourth article Dorna has published in an OA journal, an experience that she describes as being 鈥榮imilar but much faster than publishing in traditional journals鈥.
鈥淭he peer review is the same and they have the very highest standards in terms of meeting the solid scientific concept and the novelty of the work,鈥 she says. 鈥淏ut a big benefit is their relatively higher speed from acceptance to publication date, which can take months with subscription access journals.鈥
Dorna also notes the challenges that remain around publication costs and stated that more transparency is needed around costs, which academics must consider how to cover before submitting.
鈥淚t needs very strong teamwork from co-authors but it鈥檚 worth it in the end,鈥 says Dorna.
A changing culture
Dorna observes that in Australia, the prestige of a journal remains the major driver for academics. But she sees signs that things are starting to shift.
鈥淚f they are considering between the same level of prestige between open access and traditional journals, they are preferring to publish open access,鈥 she says. 鈥淭his is a new trend that鈥檚 happening here in Australia, which it wasn鈥檛 five or ten years ago.鈥
Dorna鈥檚 advice to other researchers who are thinking of publishing OA is to select the right journal and consider the cost in advance. But the potential rewards make it very worthwhile.
鈥淚 got a lot of benefit by publishing in open access,鈥 Dorna says. 鈥淚t gave high visibility to the research that has positively influenced my research profile and that of my team, as well as help me to translate my research into industry.鈥
Discover more stories of researchers who have published open access.
Dr. Dorna Esrafilzadeh (@DEsrafilzadeh) is a Scientia Fellow in the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. Her main research interests include electrically conductive materials, liquid metals, additive fabrication technologies, bioelectronics and biomimetic systems.
