Ocean managers, policymakers, and NGOs routinely face barriers to scientific knowledge: they simply can't afford costly subscriptions to traditional peer-reviewed academic journals. Studies have found that these financial barriers result in less primary science being used in on-the-ground environmental management plans.

MarXiv offers a way to increase access to pay-walled academic literature in a legal manner. An author who retains copyright on their submitted manuscript, known colloquially as a preprint, may upload the manuscript to the MarXiv community on Zenodo. Anyone may then download and read the preprint free of charge, legally, forever.

Make sure your research is accessible by those who need it to help our oceans: share your work in the MarXiv community on Zenodo now!

Most peer-reviewed academic journal articles require a subscription to access the full-text for free. Without an institution paying for a subscription on your behalf, an individual research paper typically costs US $30-60.

Due to the cost of pay-walled journal articles, research is seldom read outside of academia. The vast majority of government institutions lack subscription access to journals — particularly journals focusing on ocean or environmental issues. Civil society organizations rarely have access, either. One study found that only 14% of the information cited in MPA (marine protected area) management plans was from primary scientific sources, with the high cost of access creating a substantial barrier.

If you want your research to be used for ocean conservation, those doing the conservation work must be able to read more than just the abstract of your research for free.

Fortunately, you can make your pay-walled research freely-available to everyone with MarXiv, for free! No APC charges or Open Access fees required!

MarXiv offers a way to increase access to pay-walled academic literature in a legal manner. An author who retains copyright on their submitted manuscript, known colloquially as a preprint, may upload the manuscript to the MarXiv community on Zenodo. Anyone may then download and read the preprint free of charge, legally, forever.

Make sure your research is accessible by those who need it to help our oceans: share your work in the MarXiv community on Zenodo now!