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Introductory talk from BA Festival of Science session:HOW SCIENCE ADDRESSES DEVELOPING WORLD ISSUES
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How Science Addresses Developing World Issues
IntroductionDr Matthew Cockerill - BioMed Central
Knowledge as a weapon in the struggle against malaria in sub-Saharan AfricaDr Colin Sutherland - London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
The role of the media in tackling disease in the developing worldMr David Dickson - SciDev.Net
Building a generation of future environmentalists in developing countriesMr Jib Hagan - CARE Computers for Developing Countries
How open access research has been adopted in the developing worldMs Barbara Kirsop - Electronic Publishing Trust for Development
Outline of session
Sharing knowledge
Knowledge is power
“Many developing countries remain poor largely because they let the Industrial Revolution pass them by. They can ill afford to miss the information technology revolution.”
M. S. Swaminathan, “Father of the Green Revolution”
Digital divide or digital bridge?
Mobile phones in Africa
Source: African Mobile Factbook 2008
SMS messaging for trading
Increasing use of PDAs and mobile phone networks for data gathering
The founders of 03b Networks recently helped pioneer the first commercial 3G mobile and fibre-to-the-home networks in Rwanda
The company said the system will enable the spread of locally generated content and e-learning, encouraging social and economic growth in the developing world.
It aims to tap into booming mobile phone usage in the developing world
In what areas can increased access to knowledge help?
UN Millenium Development Goals
Reduce child mortality,Improve maternal health
Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases
Ensure environmental sustainability Develop a global partnership for
development
Who needs access to the results of research?
Public
Professionals
Researchers
What is open access publishing?
Traditional journals– take ownership of the research– provide access to subscribers only
Open access journals– have no subscription barriers– take advantage of the economics of the
internet to allow universal access– research is openly licensed to allow reuse
Who pays?
Open access journals do have costs Publication fee is a very small fraction
of the cost of doing research Most open access publishers, including
BioMed Central, give waivers to developing countries
In other cases, open access journals have central support, so no charges for authors or readers
About BioMed Central
Pioneer of open access model Launched first journals in 2000 Now publish >180 OA titles >40,000 peer-reviewed OA articles
published All research articles published under
Creative Commons licence. Reuse and redistribution is encouraged.
Research on global health issues is expanding
Resources channeled into research on developing world health issues have increased significantly in recent years
A direct and an indirect result of philanthropic initiatives
Why use is the research if the people it is most relevant to
don’t have access?
US National Institutes of Health Howard Hughes Medical Institute Wellcome Trust Medical Research Council European Research Council EC Seventh Framework Program
Funders are now requiring open access
Open Access in practice
Repositories of open content
Open Access journals
Malaria Journal home page
A highly accessed Malaria Journal article
10,000+ downloads
22 citations
Where are papers on malaria published ?
020406080
100120140160180
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
(pro
j)
Year
Art
icle
s p
ub
lis
he
d Malaria Journal
Am J Trop Med Hyg
Trop Med Int Health
Mol Biochem Parasitol
Trans R Soc Trop Med
Infect Immunity
Parasitol Today/Trends
How accessible is malaria research as a whole?
Looking at the biomedical literature, around 9% of articles are immediately “open access”
18 months ago it was 6%
For malaria research it has been rapidly increasing and is now 27%!
Other tropical diseases….
The latest open access research on global health issues
A knowledge commons
Malaria Journal’s author-base is geographically diverse
Local journals are going global via Open Access
Stories from the developing world
The benefits of open access for the developing world
Zambia
Nigeria
The Gambia