PLoS/HIFA 2015 webinar: 'Can Open-Access Publishing Provide Health Care Information for All by 2015?'

We announce the first HIFA2015 Webinar, supported by PLoS, the Public Library of Science, a HIFA2015 Supporting Organisation and a leading publisher of open access journals.

Date and time: 28th March 2012 at 15:00-16:30h London/UK time (=14:00-15:30h GMT)

(To check the time in your country, please refer to the World Clock at http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/meeting.html)

Programme:

1. Introduction: Neil Pakenham-Walsh (Coordinator, HIFA2015)

2. Open Access publishing and HIFA2015: Virginia Barbour (Chief Editor, PLoS Medicine)

3. Open discussion, including Commentary from systematic reviewers, researchers and health professionals in low- and middle-income countries.

Registration (free): Please send your name, position, organisation and country of residence to: webinars@hifa2015.org

Registration by 21st March is recommended (this will help us to prepare the webinar), but not mandatory - anyone can join the session directly on the day without prior registration.

For further information and programme updates please see http://www.hifa2015.org/hifa2015-webinars/ or contact webinars@hifa2015.org.

Technical instructions: Please see http://www.hifa2015.org/hifa2015-webinars/how-to-participate-plos-hifa2015-webinar-28-march-2012/ to prepare for the webinar.

Pre-webinar discussion:

Over the next two weeks, on the HIFA2015 e-mail forum, we shall explore the issues relating to open access publishing and healthcare information. For example:

1. MEETING INFORMATION NEEDS: Articles in Open Access journals are available free to anyone with an internet connection, and can be freely shared and reproduced. To what extent do current OA journals help healthcare providers (doctors, nurses, midwives etc.) to reduce suffering and save lives in low and middle-income countries (LMICs)? Do current OA journals provide the information healthcare providers need? Or, at the moment, are they only relevant to special groups such as researchers, development professionals, academics and high-level professionals?

2. WHERE THERE IS NO INTERNET: What about the vast majority of healthcare providers in LMICs, who do not have regular internet access? Do OA journals make any difference to them - perhaps indirectly, by allowing re-use? For example, printing and incorporation in teaching aids? What advantages (or disadvantages) do OA journals bring to those who are responsible for production of systematic reviews, for guideline development, and for production of reference and educational materials?

3. HOW CAN OPEN ACCESS PUBLISHING BE DEVELOPED FURTHER in the coming three years to help ensure that healthcare providers in LMICs will have access to the information they need to learn, to diagnose, to manage and prevent disease, and to save lives and reduce suffering? How can open access publishers work with healthcare providers to support a transition from information dependence to information autonomy and thereby contribute to overall sustainable economic development and enhanced quality of life in LMICs.

If you are not already a member, please join the forum at http://www.hifa2015.org/joinhifa/ to follow the discussions.

Provided by Public Library of Science