Frank, Martin. 2006.Access to the Scientific Literature - A Difficult Balance. New England Journal of Medicine. 354(15):1552-1555
In reviewing the case for open access, it makes more sense to focus readers' attention on ways of increasing access, rather than holding to a strict line on whether a journal article, a journal, or a publisher, for that matter, is open or closed. A commitment to the value and quality of research carries with it a responsibility to extend the circulation of such work as far as possible and ideally to all who are interested in it and all who might profit by it. What follows on this principle, given the current transformation of journals from print to online formats, is that researchers, scholarly societies, publishers, and research libraries have now to ask themselves whether or not they are using this new technology to do as much as can be done to advance and improve access to research and scholarship.
Dipak Kalra, Renate Gertz, Peter Singleton, Hazel M Inskip. 2006. Confidentiality and consent in medical research: Confidentiality of personal health information used for research BMJ ;333:196-198, doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7560.196
Researchers must balance the quest for better health for all against the need to respect the privacy of research participants. In this article, Kalra and colleagues look at what needs to be done to ensure best practice. Several areas of research practice need to be improved, and staff training and access policies are essential, but firstly the main contemporary public concerns must be recognised and understood, they say.
In reviewing the case for open access, it makes more sense to focus readers' attention on ways of increasing access, rather than holding to a strict line on whether a journal article, a journal, or a publisher, for that matter, is open or closed. A commitment to the value and quality of research carries with it a responsibility to extend the circulation of such work as far as possible and ideally to all who are interested in it and all who might profit by it. What follows on this principle, given the current transformation of journals from print to online formats, is that researchers, scholarly societies, publishers, and research libraries have now to ask themselves whether or not they are using this new technology to do as much as can be done to advance and improve access to research and scholarship.
Dipak Kalra, Renate Gertz, Peter Singleton, Hazel M Inskip. 2006. Confidentiality and consent in medical research: Confidentiality of personal health information used for research BMJ ;333:196-198, doi:10.1136/bmj.333.7560.196
Researchers must balance the quest for better health for all against the need to respect the privacy of research participants. In this article, Kalra and colleagues look at what needs to be done to ensure best practice. Several areas of research practice need to be improved, and staff training and access policies are essential, but firstly the main contemporary public concerns must be recognised and understood, they say.
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