Welfare Science

Pig Welfare and Open Access Research

Open access publication of pig welfare research enables rapid dissemination to practitioners, policy-makers, and advocates without subscription barriers. Supporting open access accelerates welfare improvement.

Key Facts

Subscription journal access costs prevent many practitioners and advocates from reading welfare research
Open access publication enables immediate dissemination to global audiences
Preprint servers allow rapid sharing of research before peer review
Open data sharing enables replication and meta-analysis that strengthens evidence bases
Government-funded research is increasingly required to be published open access

Welfare Considerations

Pig welfare research that is locked behind expensive journal subscriptions cannot achieve its full welfare impact. Open access publication enables the farmers, vets, policy-makers, and advocates who could most benefit from welfare research to actually read it. Supporting open access publication models and research data sharing accelerates the translation of welfare science into real world practice.

What You Can Do

Support open access journals and preprint servers for animal welfare research
Advocate for open access requirements in public funding of welfare research
Share open access welfare research through your professional and social networks