Right to Research Coalition



Access to Research is a Student Right!

Unquestionably, apart from the textbooks and training, a tertiary education student needs to constantly keep up to date with the frequent and indispensable updates which are published on journals. The Right to Research Coalition safeguards and expands access of  published material to the students it represents.

In the rapidly developing medical sphere, the best tuition of medical students and the consequently improved patient care depend on accessibility to this material. While it is undeniable that our alma mater does put effort in subscribing to the most valid and reliable sources, the ever-increasing journal prices are exhausting library budgets with less yield and benefit for the students. This would either lead for a student not to find what one is after, or to settle for a source which is less specific than that required.

On a local level, another challenge faced is to instill the mentality for evidence-based practice and marked necessity for publications. It is already promising that today more students are dedicating some of their time to read up-to-date guidelines and papers. However, this is far from being enough to play a significant role in the way the average student perceives and practices during his medical training.

The Malta Medical Students’ Association, committed towards both medical students and society in general, was the first European organisation to enroll in the Right to Research Coalition in October 2010. In light of the above challenges, the Association is committed to raise awareness on the benefits of evidence-based medicine and that of having a more open access to the most recent publications.

Through this website we aim to act as a relay point as advocates of the aims and objectives of the Coalition by directing the student and the public towards open access resources. We also want to encourage universities, libraries, students’ organisations, researchers and other professionals to take action by joining the Coalition and by actualising and adding to the tailor-made resources on the Coalition website.

The Executive Board