Library News » Blog Archive » Open in order to advance and share scholarship

"How do you think open access assists peoples in need? I believe people in need especially those from resource-poor settings stand to benefit from open access in diverse ways. Two key issues are worthy of note. First, these are places where the populace have worst health outcomes compared to developed countries and thus clinicians should have uninhibited access to new knowledge of patient care. This can only be made fully possible with open access. With the wave of support for evidence-based practice in healthcare, open access will make it possible for health practitioners to ensure decisions about patients care are based on the best scientific evidence. However, this can be compromised severely by limited access to knowledge published in biomedical and health sciences journals. Secondly, students from the developing world often lack behind partly due to limited access to educational resources and information. Because most educational institutions do not subscribe to paid journals due to cost factors, students’ access to current and best scientific research in such journals is impeded. This is an issue that can be overcome if such barriers were removed to ensure open access to all research outputs globally without constricted learning environments."