By the end of your career, thousands of dollars would have been profited by academic publishers from your hard work and intellectual property. You, your university, and your funders, will not receive any royalties from these profits. MTAM plans to revolutionise the cash flow in academic publishing such that the academic community – you and your funders – earn money generated from your work.

Furthermore, those who cannot afford journal subscription fees try to access you and your colleagues’ papers every day, but are blocked by exorbitant paywalls. Open access provides these people with access to your papers, boosting the citation rate and impact of your articles. By driving open access initiatives, MTAM increases your impact as an author.

You fund research, so that research should be made available to whoever you want, which is, presumably, everybody from every background and every country. Many of the world’s biggest funding bodies, including the National Institutes of Health, European Commission, and the Wellcome Trust now state in their policies that all publicly funded research is to be made openly accessible. MTAM supports these moves towards an open access world, and develops new technological and policy initiatives to increase open access.

Furthermore, non-commercial research is currently a charity. You fund research knowing there will be 0% return on investment. This research, however, is earning billions of dollars annually, all of which enters corporate pockets, and none of which is returned to science. MTAM drives change to this model, such that profits generated from research are reinvested back into science.

Universities need access to knowledge to drive their own research. Currently however, university libraries fork increasingly larger bills to access academic journals every year. The price hikes imposed by many journal publishers far exceed the rate of inflation, creating a fiscally unsustainable and academically restrictive situation. Even Harvard university, one of the world’s wealthiest and most prestigious institutions, has warned it can no longer afford the price hikes imposed by many large journal publishers, which bill the university around $3.5 million each year. Through driving open access, MTAM aggressively opposes the increasing cost of knowledge, bringing funding back to universities.

The cost of your education is partly determined by your university’s expenditure on academic journal subscription and submission fees. MTAM promotes increased open access, so everyone can access academic journals for free. By doing so, your university’s expenditure drops, and so does the cost of your education.

As a taxpayer, your money contributes towards funding scientific research. Scientific research that is funded by the public should be made publicly available. It is not only needed by scientists, but also by members of the public, politicians and policy advocates to make informed decisions and exercise their democratic rights. Currently however, much of this important research is hidden behind paywalls by corporates, and can only be accessed through paying expensive fees. MTAM aims to bring power back to those who fund, create and read research, so all members of the public can access the knowledge they need for free.