Improving Access To Information: Day 2 Of The Global Maternal Health Conference 2013

I had the pleasure today of officially launching the Year 1 Open Access Collection on Maternal Health that PLOS has developed with the Maternal Health Task Force (MHTF), a leading organization coordinating efforts to improve the evidence, programmes, and advocacy of maternal health. The official launch and celebration took place at the Global Maternal Health Conference 2013 in a session devoted to discussing how to improve access to high-quality maternal health knowledge. MHTF and PLOS share a common vision to increase access to information, which we believe empowers women and will enable providers and policymakers to use evidence to improve care and advocate for women and children around the world.

The Collection is a freely available, open access collection of incisive research and commentary on the quality of maternal health care. Following 72 submissions to our call for papers and rigorous editorial and peer review, 18 articles have been published from a wide range of authors and settings: 14 original research articles (4 in PLOS Medicine, 10 in PLOS ONE) and 4 policy and health in action articles. [...]