HIFA discussion week on healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions of open access

Next week, Healthcare Information For All (HIFA) begin an in-depth thematic discussion on open access with the goal to improve transparency, advance medical science and ultimately improve patient care.

Each week for five weeks, a different issue relating to open access will be featured with contributions invited from all professionals across the healthcare research system, such as researchers, journal publishers, systematic reviewers, publishers of content for end-users, library and information professionals, and healthcare professionals.

Starting 13 October 2025, the project will address the following questions (among others):

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.

The focus of discussions will revolve around peer-reviewed academic research papers, mostly published in biomedical research journals, at a global scale, including a focus on low- and middle-income countries, reflecting the global distribution of the HIFA membership (20,000 members in 180 countries).

It is anticipated that the outputs will be published in manuscript form and presented at publisher and medical communications congresses,

Further details can be found on the HIFA website: https://www.hifa.org/news/hifa-announces-deep-dive-discussion-healthcare-professionals%E2%80%99-experiences-and-perceptions-open

Participants must be members of HIFA to apply, but it is free to join through a simple form application: www.hifa.org/join