Reading a post by Carlos Scolari about the publication of his paper on ‘Narrativas transmediáticas’ (Transmedia Storytelling), I came across the International Journal of Communication. The publication is an online, multi-media, academic journal – originated in the USC Annenberg School of Communication and directed by Manuel Castells y Larry Gross – that publish articles with a main focus on communication, being also open to contributions from ‘the many disciplines and approaches that meet at the crossroads that is communication study.’

Among the many things that capture my attention while reading about the publication, the concept of ‘open access’ is the one I like the most. As they clearly say,

Open Access enables authors to obtain the maximum possible exposure for their work. Freely available papers are read more, cited more, and have more impact than ones available only to paid subscribers.

It is a very good example to show that sometimes the academic media environment moves forward. I wish I could see more like this coming from the design community, where the most established journals are available under a paid subscription model.