Open access publishing and open access data sharing

for malaria research and control

Bob Snow

Head Malaria Public Health & Epidemiology Group, KEMRI, NairobiDirector of the Malaria Atlas Project

Professor of Tropical Public Health, University of Oxford

1994 Moved to Nairobi Wellcome, Malaria Public health Group Trust-KEMRI-University Oxford Collaboration

2000 Worked with Ministry of Health to establish a National Malaria Strategy

2005 Established Malaria Atlas Project

1984 Joined Medical Research Council, Farafenni, The Gambia

1989 Moved to Kilifi District Hospital, Wellcome Trust-KEMRI-University Oxford Collaboration

Of course there have been changes…1989 2004-5

The internet

PDF libraries linked to shared endnote

PubMed online

Hinari

Open Access

• Biomedical research results are privately owned and sold only to those who can afford it

• Publishers make huge profits by restricting access

• Medical research results should be considered a global public good (most is funded by the public)?

The problem

The private ownership of research resultsGavin Yamey former editor PLoS Medicine

• You write the research paper

• You give your work to publishers, you hand over copyright to them, they sell it to wealthy readers

• A high profile drug trial can earn a journal $1m in reprint sales ($5 billion per year industry)

• A tiny fraction of the intended audience reads your work

• Owned by 4 multinational companies (“information arms race”)

The work has just been published, so he goes online:

2006 made it a requirement of all Trust funded work to be made available on-line not later than 6 months after

publication

The director of the world's largest medical research charity receives notification from one of his funded investigators in Africa reporting exciting progress toward the development of a malaria vaccine

Access Denied

The solutionmake all research results freely available

online“It is now possible to share the results of medical research with anyone, anywhere, who could benefit from it. How could we not do it?”

Harold Varmus, Nobel Laureate, PLoS Co-founder

Chief Science Advisor to President Barack Obama

Open access: what do we mean?

• Free, unrestricted online access

• Users are licensed to download, print, copy, redistribute, and create derivative works (CC Attribution License)

• Author retains the copyright (not the publisher), i.e. right to be credited

• Papers are deposited immediately in a public database that allows sophisticated searches

Physicists doing it for years

2000 Biomed central2001 PLoS Medicine2002 Malaria Journal2003 PloS Biology2004 PLos Medicine2008 Parasites & vectors

? Lancet? NEJM? Trends in Parasitology? Transactions of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene? Annals of Tropical Medicine & Parasitology? American Journal of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene? African Health Journals

…. Still relatively new c. 10 years

Most prestigious highest impact factor journals not OA (Lancet, NEJM, Nature) – must pay for OA

Old literature needs archiving and making available

Still dependent on internet speed and access still a N-S divide

There is now simply too much to read and digest, search engines and synthesis programmes much us less well read

Inadequate quality?

Still not perfect……….

Most prestigious highest impact factor journals not OA (Lancet, NEJM, Nature) – must pay for OA

Old literature needs archiving and making available

Still dependent on internet speed and access still a N-S divide

There is now simply too much to read and digest, search engines and synthesis programmes much us less well read

Inadequate quality?

Need to educate journalists and public – climate-gate

One step beyond – Open Access Data

Internet Rights Charter

“Scientific and social research that is produced with the support of

public funds should be freely available to all”

Three main steps

Data assembly from published and unpublished sources (including government/DHS sources)

Mathematical space-time modeling

Data archive for others

MBGW I map used circa 8000 data points

MAP I 2007 iterationGlobally

MBGWII being developed now 22,800 data points185% increase over last iteration55% of data post 2005Includes 15 national surveys; 5 of which we have been directly involved withMore data with time will reduce uncertainty and increase capacities to examine time-space cube of risk

MAP II 2010 iteration

Interpolated global stable endemic surface of P. falciparum parasite prevalence to 2007

Hay et al. PLoS Medicine, 2009

0.9 billion people in unstable risk1.38 billion people in stable risk

Repository of Open Access Data – Malaria Atlas Project

ROAD-MAP

R.O.A.D