Thank you Arun and all,
Barbara was an active member of HIFA since 2006. She was, as Arun says, 'a frontline soldier, steadfast and uncompromising' for open access. She was a steadfast advocate for open access at the HIFA conference at the BMA London in 2011. At that time, open access had not yet been embraced by leading publishers. Today, thanks to her and others' efforts, open access is mainstream. It is amazing that in just a few years we have moved from a situation where we expected to pay to read the full text of a paper, to one where we expect to access the full text free of charge. This aspect of 'universal access to reliable healthcare information' has changed dramatically, for the better.
Thank you Barbara, Arun and all those who have championed the cause of open access.
Best wishes, Neil
Neil Pakenham-Walsh, HIFA Coordinator, neil@hifa.org www.hifa.org
