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Open access to Harvard Research

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Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard is a free repository of vetted research, breaking down barriers to information across the world.

After reading a journal article on the transgender community in Iran from Harvard’s open access collections, an anonymous reader writes: “I happen to belong the population of this study, namely a genetic male, gender-fluid Iranian. I wish more research was done in this area. It was very heart-warming to know that academia is not oblivious to our plight.”

Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) is a free repository of peer-reviewed articles by Harvard faculty and researchers, available to anyone with internet access. From a single mother in Pakistan to a public health researcher in South Africa, personal notes populate an interactive map revealing stories from users around the world—many from countries that restrict access to the free flow of information.

“Open access increases the relevance of research to a greater audience,” says Kyle K. Courtney, program manager and copyright advisor at the Harvard Library Office for Scholarly Communication. By removing price and permission barriers from peer-reviewed articles, knowledge that was once the privilege of the elite is available to everyone.