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| title    = The Rise of Open Access
 
| title    = The Rise of Open Access
 
| image    = the_rise_of_open_access.jpg
 
| image    = the_rise_of_open_access.jpg
| imagesize = 1200px
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| before    = The accelerating pace of scientific publishing and the rise of open access, as depicted by xkcd.com cartoonist Randall Munroe.
 
| ldomain  = sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full#
 
| ldomain  = sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full#
| lappend  =
 
 
| extra    = yes
 
| extra    = yes
| noexpand  = true
 
 
}}
 
}}
  
* The comic above is from the article "[https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.342.6154.58 The Rise of Open Access]" published by ''Science''. The article page doesn't display the image anymore, but [https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/science.342.6154.58 PDF version] is still available on the site. A larger version of this image can be found [https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/images/4/48/the_rise_of_open_access.jpg here].
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* The full-size version of this chart can be found here: http://www.sciencemag.org/site/special/scicomm/infographic.jpg.
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* The original article "The Rise of Open Access" on the journal Science can be found here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/342/6154/58.full.
  
 
==Explanation==
 
==Explanation==
This comic is a one-off exclusive created for the journal {{w|Science (journal)|Science}} by [[Randall Munroe]]. It shows how much "Science" there is and how much of it will be Open access. It is not part of the main comic series.
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This comic is a one-off exclusive created for the journal {{w|Science (journal)|Science}} by [[Randall Munroe]].
  
It shows how much Science is there by showing how many papers have been published. It states that there can be 140 citations per page. On a Word document with a narrow margin and regular font you could fit about 140 citations on one page with a word size of 6. It then states that we can fit 1000 pages per book. 1000 pages is a lot for children's books{{Citation needed}} and even larger fiction books such the Harry Potter series have about 600 pages. However, many reference books and dictionaries have over 1000 pages. For a size reference, picture Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix 1.3 times larger. We then start stacking books, each one having 140,000 citations in them.
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==Transcript==
  
The comic then says that a list of papers published in 1880 will have 100 pages, or 14,000 citations - not even one book. By 1920 the pile will be growing at 500 pages per year. This means that if it were linear, there will be 50 books, or 50,000 pages, in 2020. However, this growth is clearly exponential, as shown by the 1975 volume alone taking up four books. At the time this comic was published there were five books each year and growing.
 
  
The comic then shows a timeline, featuring [[Cueball]], [[Megan]] and [[Ponytail]]. From 1880 to 1900 there are barely any books; at 1900 there are three books; this drops back to one until 1920, where there are four; at 1930 there are nine; and at 1940 there are a whopping 14. It is further shown at the second timeline that the number continues to grow exponentially. Along the timeline there are random bits of trivia.
 
 
The second part of the comic shows how much of all that information is, or will be, open access or available to the public without many copyright restrictions. For example, xkcd is open access because it is licensed to be viewed and copied for non-profit means. As the comic states, the advent of the web has facilitated more science becoming open access. The second picture is another timeline featuring Cueball, Megan, [[Black Hat]], and [[Danish]] in an area labeled Open Access. The various milestones depicted demonstrate how the proportion of information available as open access has now reached more then half, and is continuing to grow.
 
 
==Transcript==
 
 
:'''How much science is there?'''
 
:'''How much science is there?'''
  
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  | 1987-89 || First online journals appear
 
  | 1987-89 || First online journals appear
 
  |-  
 
  |-  
  | 1991 || Paul Ginsparg launches ARXIV for physics preprints
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  | 1991 || Paul Ginsparg launches ARXIV for physics reprints
 
  |-
 
  |-
 
  | 1999 || NIH director proposes an archive of free biomed papers
 
  | 1999 || NIH director proposes an archive of free biomed papers
 
  |-  
 
  |-  
  | 2000 || Pubmed Central debuts <br> PLoS founded (now PLOS)
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  | 2000 || Pubmed Central debuts <br> Plos founded
 
  |-  
 
  |-  
 
  | 2001 || 30,000 scientists call for a boycott of journals that don't allow free access on Pubmed within 6 months
 
  | 2001 || 30,000 scientists call for a boycott of journals that don't allow free access on Pubmed within 6 months
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:Black Hat: 25% of open-access papers are freely available on publication. The rest becomes free within 12 months on journal websites or other repositories.   
 
:Black Hat: 25% of open-access papers are freely available on publication. The rest becomes free within 12 months on journal websites or other repositories.   
  
:[Next to Cueball, Danish fishes a book out of a pile of volumes with a fishing rod.]
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:[Next to Cueball, a woman fishes a book out of a pile of volumes with a fishing rod.]
 
 
  
{{comic discussion}}
 
 
[[Category:Science]]
 
[[Category:Science]]
 
[[Category:Large drawings]]
 
[[Category:Large drawings]]
[[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Ponytail]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Black Hat]]
 
[[Category:Comics featuring Danish]]
 
[[Category:Scientific research]]
 
[[Category:No title text]]
 
[[Category:Comics with color]]
 

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