Open access in the biomedical field: a unique opportunity for researchers (and research itself).

Aim of this article is to offer an overview of the Open Access strategy and its innovative idea of a free scholarly communication. Following the worldwide debate on the crisis of the scholarly communication and the new opportunities of a networked environment, definitions, purposes and real advantages of the Open Access pathway are presented from a researcher's point of view. To maximize the impact and dissemination, by providing free access to the result of the research, two complementary roads are pointed out and explained self-archiving in open archives and publishing in Open Access journals. To let authors make their choice the most useful tools to find one's way in this new reality are shown: directories, search engines, citation tracking projects. The starting survey being done, the article deals in its conclusions with the Open Access challenges and most debated themes: impact and dissemination, new assessment measures alternative to the Impact Factor, new mandatory policies of the funding agencies, questions related to the copyright issue.