Last Updated on November 13, 2025, 1:25 pm ET
Editor’s note: This is the first in a series of ARL Research & Analytics Impact Reports, which capture transformative effects of specific research library programs on students, researchers, communities, and/or the higher education/research enterprise. For more information about the Impact Reports series, contact Kevin Borden, senior director, Research and Analytics, ARL.
Nature Cell Biology published a groundbreaking study by Vanderbilt University researchers in collaboration with colleagues at the University of Texas Southwestern, submitted and made open access by corresponding author Dylan Burnette of Vanderbilt. The research redefines our understanding of how cells communicate. It uncovered the existence of previously unknown biological structures called blebbisomes: massive, mobile, extracellular vesicles that carry organelles like mitochondria and have the ability to both send and receive molecular signals. These “super-vesicles” act like autonomous communication centers, traveling between cells, relaying signals, and even performing tasks typically confined within cell boundaries.
The study revealed that cancer cells exploit blebbisomes to suppress the immune system by releasing immune-dampening proteins, helping tumors evade detection. This advancement in our understanding of cell biology holds significant promise for future breakthroughs for cancer diagnostics, immunotherapy, targeted drug delivery, and regenerative medicine.
The world was able to engage with this research the moment it was published because Vanderbilt made the article openly accessible. No subscriptions. No paywalls. Just science, immediately available to researchers, clinicians, educators, and innovators around the world, online at the source, for free.
A bibliometric analysis at Vanderbilt reveals that open access articles like this receive significantly more citations, averaging a field-weighted citation impact (FWCI) of 1.36, compared to 0.87 for paywalled articles. That’s more than a 50% increase in impact, showing that when research is freely available, it moves faster, reaches farther, and matters more to society.
This moment represents exactly what the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries have been working toward. Through transformative agreements with major publishers, including Elsevier, Nature, Taylor and Francis, Wiley, Sage, and the JAMA Network (among many others), the libraries have removed financial and structural barriers to publishing. Authors at Vanderbilt can now share their work widely without paying article processing charges, and readers worldwide can access that work without cost. These agreements currently save the university’s research community millions annually, with the potential to save millions more as additional open access partnerships are realized. But the true impact lies in how these agreements accelerate discovery, democratize access, and expand the reach of knowledge.
Open access does not just make research more visible; it also makes it more impactful. It invites collaboration from unexpected places and disciplines. A cancer biologist in Tennessee can now be in dialogue with a clinician in Texas, an AI researcher in Leipzig, or a pharmaceutical innovator in New Jersey. Vanderbilt’s faculty and students are no longer constrained by who can afford to read their work or where it gets published.
Early-career researchers and students are among the biggest beneficiaries. Without the cost barrier to publishing, they can share their findings from the outset of their careers. At the same time, open access enriches education by allowing professors to integrate the most current research directly into their teaching materials and gives students access to real-time discoveries that complement their coursework and inspire future research.
Vanderbilt’s open access efforts also fulfill growing compliance expectations from funders such as the NIH, NSF, and international initiatives like Plan S. These funders require that publicly funded research be made publicly accessible. Vanderbilt’s infrastructure and leadership ensure that these mandates are not only met but transformed into opportunities for broader societal impact.
The blebbisome study is a compelling case in point. It is a discovery that could fundamentally change how we understand and treat cancer. By making that discovery open from day one, Vanderbilt has invited the entire global scientific community to build upon it, test it, critique it, and translate it into new therapies, technologies, and insights.
The libraries continue to advance this work by investing in sustainable and inclusive publishing models like Subscribe to Open and diamond open access. These models ensure that research can be both freely shared and responsibly supported, particularly by smaller journals and scholarly societies. Broader commitments to repository infrastructure, research data and digital preservation are also ensuring that Vanderbilt research remains discoverable, preserved, and connected across systems and time.
By placing access, equity, and impact at the heart of our work, the Jean and Alexander Heard Libraries are helping Vanderbilt fulfill its mission to generate and share knowledge that improves lives. The open access blebbisome study illustrates what becomes possible when breakthrough science is not only discovered but made immediately and universally accessible.
