Improving access to research literature in developing countries : challenges and opportunities provided by Open Access

The Open Access movement has grown from pockets of regional initiatives to an increasingly coordinated world wide movement, facilitated by common technical standards and open source software. While debates on open access have focused on the so-called “serial crisis” and copyright issues, relatively little attention has been paid to the myriads of benefits OA provide, particularly to researchers in the developing countries. In this paper, we highlight important developments and experimentations in knowledge sharing enabled by different modes of open access, and point to collaborative and sustainable models that will be highly beneficial to research institutions in the developing world in the long term. The recommendations in this2 paper will have important implications for library and information professionals working in resource poor countries

Towards Open and Equitable Access to Research and Knowledge for Development

Leslie Chan and colleagues discuss the value of open access not just for access to health information, but also for transforming structural inequity in current academic reward systems and for valuing scholarship from the South

Open Archiving Opportunities for Developing Countries : towards equitable distribution of global knowledge

Although the World Wide Web is less than a decade old, it already has had a profound impact on scientific publishing and scholarly communication. In particular, open standards and low-cost networking tools are opening many possibilities for reducing and even eliminating entirely the cost barriers to scientific publications. One development that has great potential value for poorly-resourced countries is "open archiving", or the deposition of scholarly research papers into networked servers accessible over the Internet. This process allows scientists in the south to retrieve research results from the north through an online interoperable mechanism. Equally, it allows scientists in the south to contribute to the global knowledge base through participation. The purpose of this article is to inform scientists and publishers in the developing world about this and related initiatives and so allow informed decisions to be made about participation. Our intention is not to provide technical details about electronic publishing and the set up of "eprint" servers for open archiving, but rather to focus on the strategic significance of open archiving for scientists from developing countries

Before and After: OA in Developing Countries

The relentless rise in the cost of research publications has lead to the increasing isolation of research scientists and other academic communities in the developing world. Furthermore, printing and distribution problems have lead to the invisibility of much of the research publications from less advantaged nations. The effect has been a growing north-south, south-north, and south-south poverty of research information which has had a damaging impact on the progress of research globally. The extent of typical pre-OA deprivation was highlighted in 2003 by a WHO survey of access to peer-reviewed journals by medical institutes in low-income countries. This showed that the institutes in the poorest countries had purchased NO journals in the previous 5 years, and the situation was only marginally better in slightly more economically strong countries. There have been a number of initiatives aimed at improving this unacceptable situation, including donor programmes and exemption from subscriptions for selected countries or reader-communities. However, by far the most encouraging development has been the growth in international acceptance of free and open access to publicly funded research output. The establishment of interoperable institutional repositories (IRs) holding an organisation’s published research, together with the conversion of journals to open access models has been widely welcomed by many organisations in the developing world and is a sustainable solution to access problems. The Electronic Publishing Trust for Development has been advocating this approach and promoting developments regionally. This presentation outlines the overall growth in IRs and the establishment of OA journals in developing regions and presents encouraging usage figures by their research communities, indicating the value of increased access for developing a strong science base. An example is provided by statistics available from Bioline International, a non-profit Canada/Brazil/UK initiative, supporting the OA distribution of journals published in developing regions. OA developments in economically strong countries, both regarding policies and technical infrastructure initiatives, are considered in relation to the needs of the developing regions. To build on current progress, a series of awareness-raising and technology transfer workshops are required, together with the development and acceptance of national and institutional OA policies. Support from major international organisations should be accelerated since if global problems are to be solved, global access to research findings are a prerequisite

Electronic Publishing Trust for Development

The aim of the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development - EPT (http://www.epublishingtrust.org) is to facilitate the spread of scientific knowledge generated in the developing world by: - the electronic distribution of regional journals - training and capacity building in e-publishing - supporting access to scientific knowledge available electronically and in particular: - raising awareness about open access developments. Presentation at the Conference "Open Access to Scientific and Technical Information: State of the Art and Future Trends" (Paris, 23-24 January 2003)

Bioline Publications : How its evolution has mirrored the growth of the Internet

Bioline was set up in 1993 as a result of an increasingly loud rumble of dissatisfaction among scientists about the way research information was (or was not) distributed. The rumble reached a crescendo at a biotechnology/ bioinformatics conference in Trieste, Italy at which Professor Joshua Lederberg (winner of the 1958 Noble Prize in Medicine) deplored the growing gap between the cost of learned journals and the budgets of libraries to purchase them (Branin and Case, 1998). This problem was recognised as being particularly pronounced for research institutions in developing countries (Ginsparg, 1996). At the same time, the appearance of a possible means of using information technology and communications (ICT) set the research community thinking that there may, just possibly, be a low cost solution in sight. Some of us had been collaborating as working scientists on online databases and had some experience in the use of electronic communication. We had skills in database development, in software development and in serving on editorial boards of various biological journals during the normal course of our academic careers. We had contacts in the international scientific community and in the publishing world. As scientists, we also knew what scientists wanted. Perhaps we had enough collective knowledge to do something constructive to test the electronic publishing water. On the negative side, we had little experience of the likely impact of the new technologies on the distribution of scientific research; we knew little about the likely response from the scientific community to a novel method of accessing research information. We also had no idea of the consequences of e-publishing on the economics of journal publishing. Would we become millionaires or debtors? We decided to test the water. This article describes the progress of Bioline Publications from birth to the present time and draws some conclusions from our experience

Editorial - Biopolicy, Volume 1, August 3rd 1996

Now, as perhaps never before, we are acutely aware of the need to conserve the earth's natural resources. In natural and managed ecosystems, biological processes are integral to the function and stability of the biosphere, making it essential that biological resources are used and managed in an ecologically sustainable manner. As a result there has been a growing and vigorous global debate on biological issues in government, in scientific, legal and environmental societies, in commercial organisations and in the media. Each day both the scientific and popular press raise new issues: bovine spongiform encephalitis, a breast cancer gene, the emergence of resistant strains to tuberculosis, the patenting of genetically engineered organisms, farmers' rights, the discovery of primitive life in seemingly impossible environments and its potential for new applications. The issues raised by these discoveries and applications are not simple. All encompass many disciplines, involve many players and are often made more complex by scientific uncertainties. A prime example of a development where biopolicy issues are fundamental is the Convention on Biological Diversity. This new legal instrument presents a series of obligations and benefits to the signatories and impinges on the lives and work of many groups, from taxonomists to lawyers, from farmers to computer experts, from politicians to indigenous populations, teachers and economists. It is clear that a great number of policy issues will need to be addressed and that the debate should be wide and authoritative. It is appropriate, therefore, that the first paper to be published in this journal focuses on specific aspects of the Convention. With increasing global access to the Internet - it is predicted that only 7 countries will remain without access to the network by the end of the century - we are provided with a powerful distribution mechanism that has the potential to reach all who have an interest in biopolicy and to provide equitable access to high quality information at the lowest possible cost. The publishers, editors and editorial board of Biopolicy have agreed that the journal will take full advantage of the new technology by adopting an online-only policy and by providing links to appropriate resources from within the full text of papers. All documents published will be peer-reviewed and formally archived to secure future availability. All abstracts will be free and the cost of full text and graphics of papers will be kept at a cost recovery level. The journal thus offers a means by which biopolicy publications can be conveniently harnessed and distributed. The potential of the Internet to link related documents, provide access to databases from within a contribution, add useful resources (links to relevant sites, a dedicated e-mail service, a news facility, an address book) and simply link authors with the user community, offers new and exciting possibilities which will inevitably contribute to the advancement of science and to political understanding and cooperation. The international editorial board looks forward with anticipation to receiving contributions from all corners of the world, that express all shades of opinion and offer all manner of expertise. It is hoped that this journal will become a major vehicle for broadening and informing global discussions on biopolicy