The team consists of Professor Diana Hicks, Assistant Professor Omar I. Asensio, and Ph.D. students Matteo Zullo and Doshi. They based the article off of research they published in February in the prestigious Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

In the original study, the researchers analyzed the reasons for 1.6 million downloads of National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine consensus reports. They found high levels of engagement from non-academic audiences, with over half of the downloads coming from settings that aren’t strictly educational.

In the London School of Economics article, Doshi details this research and advocates for increased resources for open access libraries.

“Librarians and open access advocates have long presupposed that open access to high-quality scientific knowledge could and should be viewed as a public good,” Doshi writes. “Our empirical research suggests that the initial utopian aspirations regarding the public use and societal impact of [open access] may indeed rest on sound footing.”

Read the full article in the London School of Economics’ blog.