Friends: Apart from facilitating sharing of knowledge among scientists and scholars, open access helps lay citizens to join the world of knowledge creation. Here is a good introduction to citizen science: http://blogs.plos.org/citizensci/2014/07/04/coops-citizen-sci-scoop-jefferso... Here are some projects where the lay public have contributed to advancing science in the recent past: (1) LaSort et al. 2014. The role of urban and agricultural areas during avian migration: an assessment of within-year temporal turnover http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/geb.12199/abstract;jsessionid=288C53188F6905F05C2C6810E10708BD.f02t04?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false. Global Ecology and Biogeography. (2) Schmitt et al. 2014. Planet Hunters. VI. An independent characterization of KOI-351 and several long-period planet candidates from the Kepler Archival Data. http://iopscience.iop.org/1538-3881/148/2/28 The Astronomical Journal. (3) Rose and Todd. 2014. Projecting invasion risk of non-native watersnakes (Nerodia fasciata and Nerodia sipedon) in the Western United States. http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0100277#p... PLoS one (4) Thesis: Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) fall migratory habitat dynamics in Missouri. http://rustyblackbird.org/wp-content/uploads/Canham-Thesis_RUBL-Fall-Migrato... Truman State University, 2014. Arun -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean.