What we do
Open the research. Then make it readable.
Our work runs along three tracks: an open library of peer-reviewed papers, a magazine that translates research for a general audience, and advocacy for a publishing system that does not depend on paywalls.
01 — Infrastructure
Open Access Library In development
Our open access library is being rebuilt. When it opens it will be a searchable collection of freely accessible scientific papers: anyone will be able to search it, read the full text and create a free account to save and organise the papers that matter to them — no subscription, no institutional login, no per-article charge.
The reason for it has not changed. Access to research should not depend on which university you happen to belong to, or which country you happen to live in.
Not online yet. The library will launch at coalibry.org, which is still under construction. We will announce the opening here and in our quarterly management brief. In the meantime, write to info@united-academics.org if you would like to hear about it directly.
02 — Communication
United Academics Magazine
Access alone is not enough. A paper written for twenty specialists remains closed to everyone else, however freely it is licensed. United Academics Magazine closes that second gap: writers take peer-reviewed studies and turn them into articles a curious reader can actually follow.
The subjects range as widely as the research does — from the human body and mind to the mysteries of space and physics.
03 — Advocacy
Advocating for open access
The foundation makes the case for unrestricted access to scientific knowledge: in conversation with researchers and institutions, in public debate, and by demonstrating that the alternative works. Paywalls are a choice, not a law of nature, and the arguments for keeping them get weaker every year.
We are equally interested in the parts of the system that receive less attention — transparency in peer review, the incentives that shape where researchers publish, and the cost that article processing charges push onto authors.
If you are working on the same problem from another direction, we would like to talk. Researchers who want to advise on publishing models are particularly welcome.