For many scientists and medics, especially those in lower
income countries, access to the latest research can be limited and restricted
behind subscription barriers. In this age of technology should anyone have to
pay to access research published online?

Open access publishing provides free, immediate and permanent
online access to the full text of an article, presenting researchers with
easily accessible high-quality scientific resources essential to the rapid and
efficient global communication of research findings.

The open access publishing model provides many benefits to
researchers and educational institutions in low-income countries:

Access to research

By removing journal subscription fees, open access challenges
geographic inequalities regarding access to and use of high-quality scientific
resources. Open access publishing facilitates scientific and medical
information flow and plays an important role in future international social and
scientific development.

Communication of
research

Open access publishing ensures the rapid and efficient
communication of research findings. High visibility and citation rates of open
access articles means that this publishing method also aids those looking to
communicate their own research results to the global scientific community. To
further support researchers in low-income countries, BioMed Central operates
a Waiver
scheme that enables these authors to publish their research in a
BioMed Central journal without incurring the usual article-processing charge.

Return on research

Universities and institutions co-benefit from their
researchers’ growing impact. This increases the return on investment for those
who funded the research, such as governments, charitable foundations, and the
tax-paying public. For more information about open access or BioMed Central and
its journals, visit our general about pages.