[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/open-access-112-how-important-open-acce... ]
Dear David and all,
Thanks again for your message above, where you asked ChatGPT in relation to my original challenge: “However, to date we have been unable to identify a single example of how access to the full text of a research paper saved a life, or even contributed directly to clinical decision-making.”
Finally I'd like to comment on the last example provided by ChatGPT.
'#5 (health-system access): While it’s harder to tie one patient’s survival to one OA PDF, programmes built to widen OA access for clinicians—e.g., HINARI Access to Research in Health / Research4Life—have peer-reviewed evaluations showing clinicians and institutions used the newly accessible literature in care and training across low- and middle-income countries, helping close the “know-do” gap that underpins preventable mortality.'
ChatGPT doesn't give a reference for this one, but most of us are familiar with Hinari and would agree that it has improved the availability and use of research papers in peer-reviewed journals.
However, Hinari is not primarily an open-access initiative. The primary benefit of Hinari is that it provides access to subscription journals free or at low cost to certain institutions in eligible countries.
The example doesn't respond to the original challenge of identifying a specific example of how access to the full text of a research paper saved a life, or even contributed directly to clinical decision-making.
We have now asked the HIFA community and ChatGPT for such examples. None have emerged from HIFA members. Your approach to ChatGPT yielded 5 examples, and my previous approach yielded 6 examples. Gowever, none of these 11 examples fit our original challenge.
We can therefore conclude that 'we have been unable to identify (through the HIFA forum or through ChatGPT) a single example of how access to the full text of a research paper saved a life, or even contributed directly to clinical decision-making.'
Such examples may well exist. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But for me this exercise raises questions about the importance of open access to research (as opposed to open access to derivative content) to clinical decision-making.
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