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Presentation at the International Conference on Strategies and Policies for Open Access to Scientific Information in Beijing, June 2005

no abstract

In order to do justice to the collective and universal nature of science, the free exchange of research results is nothing less than imperative. This can only mean free and open access to these results. Before the Internet, the physical limitations of print made universal open access a practical impossibility. But now that the internet is proving to be such a useful instrument of disseminating information, these physical constraints have disappeared. Left are only the economic constructs of subscriptions and licences, which are relics of the past, when they were the appropriate models for print publications. Publishing is, of course, not without costs. BioMed Central is pioneering a so-called 'input-paid' publishing model that recoups the costs from article processing charges rather than subscriptions or licences. The resulting 'open access' to scientific literature delivers maximum visibility and impact in addition to increased speed of publication and dramatically lower costs to the community. The textual version of this presentation at the Conference "Open Access to Scientific and Technical Information: State of the Art and Future Trends" (Paris, 23-24 January 2003) was published with the title 'Open Access Publishing' in "Information Services and Use", vol. 23 (2003), issue 2-3, p. 113-115.

The aim of the present study is to describe the design of an acquisition system for the specific purpose of recording heart murmurs originating from stenosis in the coronary arteries. The design and development of such a system require knowledge in many disciplines: acoustic couplers, microphones, skin adhesives, electronic hardware, software and patient safety. Special considerations are needed in order to record these murmurs since they have a 60 dB lower sound level, than that of the closing heart valves. The system was implemented and successfully used for collection of heart sounds in a clinical trial including 463 patients referred for elective coronary angiography. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]