Dear HIFA colleagues,
Please forward this message to your networks and contacts as widely as possible. We aim to welcome 100 new members in the coming days.
HIFA announces a deep-dive discussion on healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of open access publishing, starting 13 October 2025
https://www.hifa.org/news/hifa-announces-deep-dive-discussion-healthcare...
Join HIFA today (free) to take part in this global discussion! www.hifa.org/join
We shall explore open access issues in depth here on the HIFA forum. Here are some questions to help guide the conversation:
Week 1. What is the impact of open access (OA) on health care?
Week 2. What is your experience of OA as a healthcare professional/reader?
Week 3. What is your experience of OA as a researcher/author?
Week 4. How would you design an OA system that retains the benefits but fixes the problems of the current OA system?
Week 5. Open discussion and next steps.
We shall focus mainly on peer-reviewed academic research papers, which are mostly published in biomedical research journals. The discussion will be global, including a focus on low- and middle-income countries, reflecting the global distribution of the HIFA membership (20,000 members in 180 countries).
We seek input from all stakeholders in the global evidence ecosystem (1 researchers, 2 journal publishers, 3 systematic reviewers, 4 publishers of content for end-users, 5 library and information professionals, and 6 healthcare professionals, among others).
The outputs will be published in manuscript form and presented at publisher and medical communications congresses, for example, the Annual Meeting of the International Society of Medical Publication Professionals (Washington DC, April 2026) and will help guide next steps to maximise the benefits of open access for better health.
Acknowledgement
HIFA is grateful for sponsorship from Oxford PharmaGenesis, a HealthScience communications consultancy based near Oxford UK.
Best wishes, Neil
HIFA profile: Neil Pakenham-Walsh is coordinator of HIFA (Healthcare Information For All), a global health community that brings all stakeholders together around the shared goal of universal access to reliable healthcare information. HIFA has 20,000 members in 180 countries, interacting in four languages and representing all parts of the global evidence ecosystem. HIFA is administered by Global Healthcare Information Network, a UK-based nonprofit in official relations with the World Health Organization. Email: neil@hifa.org