Free journals for developing countries

The WHO and six medical journal publishers have launched the Access to Research initiative, which enables ∼70 developing countries to gain free access to biomedical literature through the Internet.The science publishers, Blackwell, Elsevier Science, the Harcourt Worldwide STM group, Wolters Kluwer International Health and Science, Springer–Verlag and John Wiley, were approached by the WHO and the British Medical Journal in 2001. Initially, >1000 journals will be available for free or at significantly reduced prices to universities, medical schools, research and public institutions in developing countries. The second stage involves extending this initiative to institutions in other countries.Gro Harlem Brundtland, director-general for the WHO, said that this initiative was ‘perhaps the biggest step ever taken towards reducing the health information gap between rich and poor countries’.See http://www.healthinternetwork.net for more information.