Unlocking local research potential with open access

According to Leslie Chan, director of Bioline International, the developing world is not well served by traditional research publishing, but can break new ground with open access. Free and unrestricted access to research results and publications, known as open access (OA), is key to speeding up scientific discovery. There is also growing evidence that OA maximises the impact of research through better dissemination and uptake of research findings. At the recent Berlin 9 Open Access conference in Washington DC, there was a recurrent theme: that in today's highly networked, open-knowledge environment, the traditional scholarly communication system — with the journal article as the key currency — can no longer serve the diverse needs of scholarship and discovery. Full article available here.