Rapid Responses to:
|
|
Rapid Responses: Rapid Responses published:
-
![[Read Rapid Response]](/icons/misc/sectionDOWN.gif)
Open access is not new
- Ken Stein, Tom Walley, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool, L69 3GF (11 April 2008)
|
|
|||
|
Ken Stein, Professor of Public Health Peninsula Medical School, University of Exeter, EX2 5DW, Tom Walley, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology, University of Liverpool, L69 3GF
Send response to journal:
|
We write to point out an important ommission in this short article highlighting new advances in open access publishing. While we comend the BMJ for adopting a “completely open” access policy i.e. one in which neither researchers nor readers are required to pay for study reports, we would highlight that the UK NHS HTA Programme has been responsible for such an approach for more than a decade through its monograph journal "Health Technology Assessment". This publishes, subject to appropriate peer review and editorial quality assessment, the outputs of projects funded by the largest programme of research funded by and for the NHS. As far as we are aware, the HTA Programme was the first and remains the only programme of national research which has adopted a policy of ensuring free access to the findings of research it has commissioned. Monographs are published in paper form and are made freely available on the internet (www.ncchta.org), the latter accounting for most access by far. All titles are listed in Medline and the series recently obtained its first Science Citation Impact Factor of 5.29, placing it in the top 10% of medical journals. The experience of establishing the monograph series also demonstrates an important issue not mentioned by Mayor - publication of research findings in different but complementary formats fulfills different purposes. Health Technology Assessment publishes detailed accounts of all aspects of HTA funded research, without restriction on article length. This allows the monographs to serve as a public archive of research undertaken and, more importantly, accomodates the fact that in many HTA projects several related research questions may be answered, often using different methods. Crucially, monograph publication does not preclude the publication of briefer accounts of elements of an HTA in specialist academic journals. Indeed, we encourage such targetting of findings. We believe there is a growing awareness in the academic publishing community that such multiple publication supports the dissemination and uptake of research findings, although readers should always be made aware of the existence of different accounts of the same research. Where journals are concerned about copyright and being “first to press” the HTA Programme accommodates these concerns by ensuring monograph publication after publication in a specialist journal. Going further, the BMJ has been at the forefront of accepting the potential value of contemporaneos release of 4000 word articles targetted at particular clinical groups and 200-400 page detailed accounts in the monograph series of all aspects of the research undertaken. We are working with the BMJ to find ways in which our common aims can be served by collaborating on the release of particularly important findings in this way. Such complementary publication of accounts of research at different levels of detail, which is facilitated by open access, offers clinicians and policy makers more timely and comprehensive access to research findings. This also, as suggested by Mayor, ensures that an account is made available of research funded through the public purse. The innovation of Health Technology Assessment in this respect is one which should have been recognised and, with greater clarity about research commissioning responsibilities and growth in the UK National Institute for Health Research's portfolio, we believe should be adopted more widely. Ken Stein (ken.stein@exeter.ac.uk) Tom Walley (t.walley@liv.ac.uk) Competing interests: Tom Walley is Director of the NIHR HTA Programme. Ken Stein is Chair of the Editorial Board of Health Technology Assessment |
|||