Joseph Ana says: "Open access is the future. It’s most frustrating to see journals that are closed (reading the article behind pay-wall)."
Indeed, and it is a positive reflection of our time that we now expect papers to be open access and feel frustrated whenever we find that a paper is *not* open access. It's amazing to witness the expansion and success of open access over the past 20 years.
Which leaves us with the question: Why do some journals fail to transition to open access (or never try) while others succeed and flourish with an open access model? I would be interested to hear from HIFA members about possible drivers and barriers.
As an example, we can celebrate the fact that many of the leading titles of biomedical journals published in Africa are now open-access, which allows us to share and discuss specific articles on HIFA. And their accessibility is further enhanced by the successful AJOL (African Journals OnLine) which began as an initiative of the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) when I worked for them in the late 90s and early 2000s.
And yet most journals have yet to start their open access journey, thereby limiting the impact of health research. What's stopping them?
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org
