Prof. Bob Snow, Malaria Public Health & Epidemiology Group, KEMRI-University of Oxford-Wellcome Trust Collaborative Programme speaking at Open Access Africa 2010

1. Open access publishing and open
access data sharing
for malaria research and control
Bob Snow
Head Malaria Public Health & Epidemiology Group, KEMRI, Nairobi
Director of the Malaria Atlas Project
Professor of Tropical Public Health, University of Oxford

2. 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

3. Of course there have been changes…
1989 2004-5
The internet
PDF libraries linked to shared endnote
PubMed online
Hinari
Open Access

4. • 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

5. The private ownership of research results
Gavin 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”)

6. 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

9. The solution
make 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

10. 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

11. Physicists doing it for years
2000 Biomed central
2001 PLoS Medicine
2002 Malaria Journal
2003 PloS Biology
2004 PLos Medicine
2008 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

12. 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……….

14. 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

15. Internet Rights Charter
“Scientific and social research that
is produced with the support of
public funds should be freely
available to all”

16. Three main steps
Data assembly from published and unpublished sources
(including government/DHS sources)
Mathematical space-time modeling
Data archive for others

17. MBGW I map used circa 8000 data points
MAP I 2007 iterationGlobally

18. MBGWII being developed now 22,800 data points
185% increase over last iteration
55% of data post 2005
Includes 15 national surveys; 5 of which we have been directly involved with
More data with time will reduce uncertainty and increase capacities to examine
time-space cube of risk
MAP II 2010 iteration

19. Interpolated global stable endemic
surface of P. falciparum parasite
prevalence to 2007
Hay et al. PLoS Medicine, 2009
0.9 billion people in unstable risk
1.38 billion people in stable risk

20. Repository of Open Access Data –
Malaria Atlas Project
ROAD-MAP

21. R.O.A.D