As we continue to deal with the many issues amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic, we see, once again, the value of open access. Even before the Open COVID Pledge, many journals published all research on the Novel Coronavirus openly, knowing health care providers around the world were desperate for any facts, any information, any treatments they could use. Previous health crises have had similar effects - Zika virus, MERS, Ebola - each time there was a crisis there was a rush to provide information and make it freely and openly available.
Starting in 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) made it mandatory for all research funded by the NIH be made available to the public by publishing in journals that allow open access and/or adding the researchers article to PubMed Central, an open access health sciences repository. This mandate has led to a general expectation that health research will be made available to all (unfortunately, not yet true). But now, during a pandemiccrisis, it has become critical. The New England Journal of Medicine published “Dexamethasone in Hospitalized Patients with Covid-19 — Preliminary Report” on July 17 openly, available to anyone in the world. Since then, dexamethasone has become a standard treatment for moderately and severely ill patients with COVID-19. With research being shared, what is known about COVID-19 increases and treatment improves. As treatment improves, fewer patients die and death rates decrease. Lives are being saved.
Arizona State University’s charter ensures that not only are we involved in a myriad of COVID-19 research, but we also support sharing research results “...assuming fundamental responsibility for the economic, social, cultural and overall health of the communities it [ASU] serves”.
Janice Hermer, Health Sciences Librarian