An important proposal has been promoted by a team of researchers coordinated by Giovanni Destro Bisol of the Department of Environmental Biology: make scientific knowledge on Coronavirus free and available to everyone.

The research, in collaboration with Marco Capocasa and Paolo Anagnostou, states that, unlike other studies on different diseases, 90% of the papers about Coronavirus were published in open and immediate access, including those published in the most prestigious journals such as Nature and Science. As the infectivity, pathogenesis and clinical course of COVID-19 are not yet fully understood, the availability of new knowledge can be fundamental to improve both preventive and therapeutic approaches.

However, according to the researchers, the extraordinary sharing of research on Coronavirus could be extended, to other major diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases and tumours the victims of which are more numerous than those registered so far for COVID 19. The data collected during the study indicates a way forward, highlighting how more than half of the gap between Coronavirus and the ten diseases with the highest global mortality rate in terms of open access to publications could be bridged simply by allowing researchers to immediately put online the articles that have passed the scientific scrutiny but have not yet been typographically composed, as many scientific publishers already do. In order to fully guarantee open access papers for everyone, a further step should be taken: removing restrictions on the sharing of newly accepted papers, such as the time-limited embargo.

Greater availability of results of medical studies to scholars and professionals would not only have a significant impact on scientific research and clinical practice in general but would also have a strong ethical significance. It would benefit, above all, those nations that have fewer resources for research and treatment, but in many cases, suffer the most serious consequences of many diseases.

"Coronavirus - says Giovanni Destro Bisol - can represent a turning point towards a complete, fast and barrier-free availability of new medical knowledge, or, as called internationally, "health information for all".