OA workshop for health scientists, Uganda | EIFL

"Consortium of Uganda University Libraries (CUUL) and EIFL will host an Open access (OA) workshop for health scientists and professionals at Aga Khan University, Kampala, Uganda, on August 30, 2013. The objective of the workshop is to bring together the heads of Health Departments from academic and research institutions in Uganda, OA journal editors, health scientists and professionals, interested in improving health research dissemination, especially young career researchers and professionals, to address the challenges of maximizing the visibility of health research output and improving the quality, impact and influence of health research. The problem: 'Globally, the public and private sectors spend billions of dollars each year on biomedical and health-related research. Yet in many parts of the world, health care systems are far from achieving the health outcomes targeted by the UN Millennium Development Goals. The reasons for this disparity are complex, but one key factor that has been consistently identified is the failure to translate research into effective policy and practices. Not surprisingly, then, health agencies and funding bodies around the world are paying closer attention to what is now generally described as “knowledge translation,” developing mechanisms that strengthen communication between health researchers and users of health knowledge, enhance capacity for knowledge uptake, and accelerate the flow of knowledge into beneficial health applications.' ['The chain of communication in health science: from researcher to health worker through OA' Leslie Chan with Subbiah Arunachalam and Barbara Kirsop. Open Medicine 2009; 3(3):111-119] The solution: Open approaches to scholarship are changing the way research and learning are done and there are profound implications for universities and research institutions. There is an increasing interest from governments, funders and the research community itself in opening up the way research is carried out and communicated. This interest is complemented by new research practices and processes – OA – free and unrestricted public access to peer reviewed publicly-funded research publications. Research funding agencies, universities and research organizations are recognizing that a key component of the knowledge translation process is ensuring that the primary research resulting from their funding is shared as widely as possible. They also believe that  maximizing access to the research they fund will increase the health applications and benefits of that research. Major international institutes and funders have begun to mandate OA requiring that copies of articles that result from their support are deposited in OA repositories or published in OA journals. The workshop is part of the project 'OA: knowledge sharing and sustainable scholarly communication in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda' funded by Spider, the Swedish Program for ICT in Developing Regions DSV, Department of Computer and System Sciences, Stockholm University."