It is not enough for scientists to simply publish their research in a scientific journal and hope that the general public, or even fellow scientists, will stumble across it, read it and understand the importance of the results. The science needs to be distributed globally to reach everyone, and in such a way that it can be digested by people with varying degrees of understanding of scientific concepts. Open access does help in making research available to everyone, but this is no good if people cannot understand the impact of the research. If people do not understand something, they mistrust it, and this leaves them open to people who can eloquently misrepresent the science.
