First published in 1869, Nature is one of the foremost interdisciplinary scientific journals covering a wide range of topics. Published weekly, it has a physical circulation of around 53,000 and 3 million unique readers a month online.In the realm of Science, Technology, and Medical publishing, Nature is considered one of the most cited publications for its depth and breadth of reporting. Its popularity spurred the creation of the Nature Publishing Group and nature.com, a hub for all of the scientific journals published by Macmillan’s Science and Education division.Yet a recent publishing initiative to facilitate social sharing of content on nature.com has caused some waves in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Medicine) side of the publishing industry.Subscribers to the 49 journals linked to Nature.com can now share content with non-subscribers in a read-only format on nature.com through ReadCube, a content-sharing software developer. Those looking to share an article will get a unique URL they can then place in an email or social media, bringing readers to a read-only PDF of the article. Also, media outlets that report on the findings found on nature.com will be able to share links to read-only versions of the source documents they reference.According to its own research, Nature says subscribers already pass along print content with up to eight other people, cutting into its potential subscription revenue.At the same time, this move could be Nature‘s way of thwarting open-access laws in the US similar to those started in the U.K.Other STEM publications have seen success with open-access. For example, Vet Visuals International has a policy of open-access for all veterinarian students.With this new program, however, Nature seems to be trying to replicate the success of pass-along print content in the digital world. It’s not a bad idea, since pass-along and social shares will allow the publication to charge more for advertising and will serve as word-of-mouth marketing for potential subscribers.The problem, of course, is that academic articles aren’t likely to go viral. In fact, it’s estimated that only two people read the average academic article – ever. So Nature risks losing the profits it would get by making its content available through group subscription platforms like EBSCOHost and PubMed. At the same time, with 49 journals to its name, it’s not unwise for Macmillan to look to form a direct relationship with subscribers.Thus, we will just have to wait and see if this marketing tactic increases or deflates subscription conversion rates. What do you think?