Karen Rockell Co-Founder Trustee of Beat SCAD attended a virtual workshop on 20 October, hosted by the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR) to discuss open access to research papers.
Open access makes published academic research freely and permanently available online to read and re-use. The NIHR are currently reviewing their NIHR Open Access policy, and they have been asking for the views of organisations, patients and the public to help with this.
Open access to health research is important so that patients and the public can obtain the findings of health research studies.
Beat SCAD supports free access to health research so the public can learn about the results of NIHR-funded health research.
“Making the findings of health research studies freely available to the public would be a huge benefit to patients and charities like Beat SCAD,” said Karen, who is also an NIHR Research Champion.
Beat SCAD also supports and encourages the inclusion of a jargon free Plain English Summary of the research findings with every study, so that it can be understood by anyone.