Generation Open: Open access in the eyes of a Middle Eastern young researcher - BioMed Central blog

"As part of Open Access Week, we’ve been asking young researchers for their points of view on open access. In this guest post, Aisha Gharaibeh, a medical student, gives us her perspective. The concept of open access caught my eyes when I first read about it a year and a half ago. It was through the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) March Meeting 2013 in Baltimore, USA. The level of awareness among participating students was variable. For me, I knew nothing about it, however I was eager to know more and I was fascinated by the level of awareness of some students from North America and European countries. Later on, I started working in an open access scientific journal, the International  Journal of Medical Students (IJMS), through which I got introduced more to the open access concept. Luckily, I am privileged to be a student at a university that can afford to pay thousands of dollars to make the latest publications available for free on campus. In my country, most of university students depend on their parents for studying fees and pocket money and they rarely have any other income before graduation. It would be disastrous on many levels if such subscriptions became unavailable [through universities] for the students’ and scholars’ use. Open access seems the most efficient solution if we care enough for the future of humanity and the scientific community. Sooner or later, I will graduate as a physician and will start treating patients (like, real patients) responsibly. I take it among my responsibilities to provide my future patients with the solutions with the strongest evidence base ..."