Figures
Precious vertebrates, costly Open Access
Since 1970 the world’s populations of vertebrates have been declining on a massive scale. And the journal Nature is demanding huge sums for Open Access, as the following figures explain.
Illustration: Bodara
1.4 million
people died of tuberculosis in the year 2019. Ten million took ill with it in the same year. Also in 2019 a variant of it was detected in more than 200,000 people that is resistant to drugs and even to the antibiotic Rifampicin. That was 10 percent more than in 2018.
4%
of the world’s research publications in the year 2020 were about the coronavirus, according to the journal Nature. That same year, however, the number of all articles submitted to specialist journals also increased significantly. This was probably because many researchers were working from home and able to concentrate on writing. Overall, 15 preprints and 24 articles in specialist journals on Covid-19 had to be withdrawn, which is roughly the same proportion as in all other research fields.
9,500 euros
is what the publisher of Nature asks from researchers if they want to publish an open access article with them – meaning that it would be free for anyone to read without payment (the so-called ‘gold access’ option).
