The Open Access movement is dedicated to making research freely available to everyone. Without subscription fees creating a barrier to access to the scholarly literature, people are free to "read, download, copy, distribute, print, search, or link to the full texts of these articles". This allows members of the public, as well as scientists at institutions that cannot afford skyrocketing journal subscription costs, to access important scientific information they may not otherwise have, advancing public understanding of science and speeding the pace of scientific discovery.

What you can do:

• Choose to publish your research in an OA journal
• Choose to share your work under an open license, such as Creative Commons
• Deposit your work in an open repository for your discipline
• Encourage your colleagues to do all of the above
• and much more!

Image credit: art designer at PLoS, shared under CC BY-SA license