Nature, one of the world's most prominent scientific journals, will make all its articles free to view online, its publisher announced Tuesday.
This applies to all 49 journals published on Nature.com, including Nature Neuroscience, Nature Chemistry, Nature Biotechnology and others. There's a catch, however: Non-subscribers can only access an article through a link originally shared by a paying subscriber.
[seealso slug="nature-apps"]
Nature will use the ReadCube platform -- in which its publisher, Macmillan, has a majority investment -- for sharing the read-only, non-downloadable and non-printable versions of articles. Once a link has been shared anyone can re-share it.
“We know researchers are already sharing content, often in hidden corners of the Internet or using clumsy, time-consuming practices,” said Timo Hannay, the managing director of Macmillan's division Digital Science, in a statement. He said the new policy would be a "convenient, legitimate alternative."
It's more convenient than being stuck on the wrong end of a paywall, but definitely not as easy as simply browsing Nature's website for articles. Here's what it looks like in practice: This link, courtesy of a redditor with a subscription to Nature, will work for anyone. But if you try searching for that same article on Nature's website without a subscription, you'll get only an abstract and a "subscribe" button.
Institutional subscribers can share every article since 1869, when Nature was founded, while personal subscribers can only access papers as old as 1997. As far as the media goes, Nature says around 100 media outlets will also be able to share these links.
According to a statement by Annette Thomas, chief executive of Macmillan’s Science and Education division, the new policy is a pilot program that will be evaluated over the coming year.