Objective: To assess the level of knowledge about and the attitudes of the Cuban health researchers towards the open access movement.
Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study was conducted from March to June 2007 through a printed questionnaire administered to a group of Cuban researchers from several national health institutes, who were selected by means of a stratified random sampling (160 researchers from 11 institutions). Summary statistics and bivariate correlations were obtained using the spss statistical program, version 10.0 for Windows.
Results: The best known initiatives for researchers were those related to biomedical sciences, i.e. PubMed Central, HINARI and BioMed Central. The rate of publication in open access journals and deposit in open access repositories was low. Most of researchers (85%) agree to upload a copy of their papers onto an open access repository if their institution requests so.
Conclusions: Our findings indicate a need for the promotion of the beneficial aspects of the open access movement, as well as training and encouragement for researchers so that they can take full advantage of the potential of this movement.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
