Open Access - The Holy Grail for Low Resource Practitioners?

There is a significant health workforce deficit in low income countries (LICs). In addition, professionals and students in LICs have limited options for their continuing medical education and the propagation of their scholarly work. Access to the current medical literature offers one opportunity to obtain and maintain professional skills. Hardly any individual practitioners, and fewer than 50% of LIC institutions have current subscriptions to international journals because of the cost. Making subscriptions or one-time access fees more affordable for LIC practitioners could increase access to continuing education and improve healthcare delivery. Some expensive journals offer reduced subscription fees to practitioners in LICs, and there are international organizations facilitating this e.g. Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI). Some LICs have their own journals, most of which are underfunded, do not publish frequently, are not indexed in MEDLINE/PubMed, and have low circulation rates and low impact factors. Publication in these journals is seldom sought by the leaders in their fields.