The effect of Open Access on Citation Impact

Physics articles self-archived in arXiv have up to 4 times as much citation impact as articles that are not self-archived

The Access/Impact Problem and the Green and Gold Roads to Open Access: An Update

The research access/impact problem arises because journal articles are not accessible to all of their would-be users; hence, they are losing potential research impact. The solution is to make all articles open access (OA, i.e., accessible online, free for all). OA articles have significantly higher citation impact than non-OA articles. There are two roads to OA: the “golden” road (publish your article in an OA journal) and the “green” road (publish your article in a non-OA journal but also self-archive it in an OA archive). About 10% of journals are gold, but over 90% are already green (i.e., they have given their authors the green light to self-archive); yet only about 10–20% of articles have been self-archived. To reach 100% OA, self-archiving needs to be mandated by researchers’ employers and funders, as they are now increasingly beginning to d

Nonexplicit change detection in complex dynamic settings: what eye movements reveal

Objective: We employed a computer-controlled command-and-control (C2) simulation and recorded eye movements to examine the extent and nature of the inability to detect critical changes in dynamic displays when change detection is implicit (i.e., requires no explicit report) to the operator’s task. Background: Change blindness—the failure to notice significant changes to a visual scene—may have dire consequences on performance in C2 and surveillance operations. Method: Participants performed a radar-based risk-assessment task involving multiple subtasks. Although participants were not required to explicitly report critical changes to the operational display, change detection was critical in informing decision making. Participants’ eye movements were used as an index of visual attention across the display. Results: Nonfixated (i.e., unattended) changes were more likely to be missed than were fixated (i.e., attended) changes, supporting the idea that focused attention is necessary for conscious change detection. The finding of significant pupil dilation for changes undetected but fixated suggests that attended changes can nonetheless be missed because of a failure of attentional processes. Conclusion: Change blindness in complex dynamic displays takes the form of failures in establishing task-appropriate patterns of attentional allocation. Application: These findings have implications in the design of change-detection support tools for dynamic displays and work procedure in C2 and surveillance

Rod-Shaped Monocytes Patrol the Brain Vasculature and Give Rise to Perivascular Macrophages under the Influence of Proinflammatory Cytokines and Angiopoietin-2

The nervous system is constantly infiltrated by blood-derived sentinels known as perivascular macrophages. Their immediate precursors have not yet been identified in situ and the mechanism that governs their recruitment is mostly unknown. Here, we provide evidence that CD68 (+)GR(-) monocytes can give rise to perivascular macrophages in mice suffering from endotoxemia. After adhesion to the endothelium, these monocytes start to crawl, adopt a rod-shaped morphology when passing through capillaries, and can manifest the ability to proliferate and form a long cytoplasmic protuberance. They are attracted in greater numbers during endotoxemia by a combination of vasoregulatory molecules, including TNF (tumor necrosis factor), interleukin-1 beta, and angiopoietin-2. After a period of several hours, some of them cross the endothelium to expand the population of perivascular macrophages. Depletion of adherent monocytes and perivascular macrophages can be achieved by injection of anti-angiopoietin-2 peptide-Fc fusion protein. This study extends our understanding of the behavior of monocytes at the blood-brain interface and provides a way to block their infiltration into the nervous tissue under inflammatory conditions

The green and the gold roads to Open Access

An unfortunate tendency has arisen to equate Open Access itself with Open Access journal publishing. But there is more than this one, golden, road to Open Access: there is the faster, surer and more heavily travelled green road. We think that authors may be confusing the journal-affordability problem with the access/impact problem. Let us hope that the prospect of increased impact will persuade the majority of authors and their institutions to take to the green road so we can all enjoy its rewards