Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease refers to a group of lung diseases that block airflow and make breathing difficult, which is most commonly caused by tobacco smoke, with a number of other factors like dust, air pollution and genetic disorders. The inflammatory responses are triggered in the lung of COPD patients along with narrowing of the airways which makes breathing difficult. Emphysema, chronic bronchitis and chronic obstructive airways disease are the common conditions that make up COPD. The symptoms are frequent chest infections including cough, shortness of breath, exerbation and others. COPD is a preventable and treatable disease characterized by airflow limitation that is not fully reversible. Smoking cessation and medication help managing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
Open access to the scientific literature means the removal of barriers (including price barriers) from accessing scholarly work. There are two parallel roads towards open access: Open Access articles and self-archiving. Open Access articles are immediately, freely available on their Web site, a model mostly funded by charges paid by the author (usually through a research grant).
Open Access raises practical and policy questions for scholars, publishers, funders, and policymakers alike, including what the return on investment is when paying an article processing fee to publish in an Open Access articles, or whether investments into institutional repositories should be made and whether self-archiving should be made mandatory, as contemplated by some funders.
Last date updated on April, 2024
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