OUR STORY

'Nothing in science has any value to society if it is not communicated, and scientists are beginning to learn their social obligations.'
- The Making of a Scientist (1953)

Open Science DB (Open Science Database) is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization that  aims to make science research publications more accessible to the public by actively engaging graduate students and scientists across the country. Open Science DB originally started as a grassroots movement led by graduate students in life sciences and engineering who strive to make drug discovery research more accessible to the general public. We have now expanded our initiative to include important research publications funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, National Parks Service, US Department of Agriculture, and the Centers for Disease Control that may be of interest to the general population. Our database is managed and run by graduate students from multiple universities across the country. 

We believe that current methods of sharing research findings are not sufficient to promote openness of science research. Many academic journals and conference abstracts are inaccessible to the public because of expensive subscription fees and scientific jargon. Other means of disseminating information such as press releases and patent applications are scattered across the web and require significant time and effort to find relevant and trustworthy information. As a result, finding reliable and factual information about new discoveries is very challenging for many people outside of the sphere of academia. 

We believe that scientists should take more active role in sharing their findings with the public in order to augment the benefits of scientific research. Further, we believe that efficient sharing of appropriate information is critical for the rapid translation of discoveries into tangible benefits such as policy making and therapeutics. 

​Our mission is to bridge the communication gap between research labs and the public by creating a centralized database of important scientific research taking place around the world. Scientists contribute short summaries of their research projects to Open Science DB, and our editorial team review and upload the aggregated information to make it more accessible. In this way, we hope to expand awareness and understanding of science in an unbiased manner.