Today’s open access thought is visual rather than verbal:

What’s that map telling us?  It’s showing us all the countries where open access articles have been downloaded from MIT’s open access repository.  The redder the country, the more articles that have been downloaded.  The reddest countries aren’t surprising: United States, China, India, Germany, and the UK.  But take a look at all of the orange and yellow countries: Australia, Brazil, Poland, Iran, Russia, Turkey, Egypt, etc., etc., etc.

That’s some serious global reach.

Who thinks people from all these countries would have found and read these articles if they hadn’t been open access?

Yeah, me neither.

Want to learn more about how MIT’s repository helps people worldwide?  Read  Worldwide Impact of Open Access to MIT Faculty Research.