[Re: https://www.hifa.org/dgroups-rss/how-many-people-read-full-text-research... ]
Dear Margaret,
Thanks for your response to my question "What evidence do you have that few people read the full text of research papers?"
You eloquently described the importance of full text access to you.
"in my experience, the full text is necessary for any thorough evaluation of a study."
Yes indeed. However, I suspect you are one of the few people who read the full text of research papers. It has even been suggested (without good evidence that I can find) that half of all research papers are not read by anyone other than the authors, reviewers and journal editors.
"Finally, while the general medical guidance to which you refer is essential for a busy generalist and can be a useful place to start, it often lacks sufficient detail or does not address the problem at hand."
This reminds me of a sentence in the Lancet paper 'Can we achieve health information for all by 2015?', where we made the case for universal access to reliable healthcare information: a world where every person has access to the reliable healthcare information they need to protect their own health and the health of others.
We wrote: 'A community health worker may find a single copy of Where there is no doctor, adapted and written in the local language more useful than access to thousands of international journals.'
This caused some consternation among colleagues at WHO, but the assertion has not been refuted.
The point is that a few people need access to the original full text of any given research paper, but the vast majority of us rely on a functional global evidence ecosystem, including systematic review and packaging of evidence for end-users.
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