Journal access programmes for developing countries: who has access to what, and does it work? Barbara Aronson Programme Manager, HINARI World Health Organization
Economies of the world (GNP/capita) > # countries US$ in 000 Source: World Bank 2001
(63 Libraries) (31 Libraries) (13 Libraries) (5 Libraries) (12 Libraries) (5 Libraries) (1 Library)
(21 Libraries) (4 Libraries) (5 Libraries) (4 Libraries) (1 Library) (5 libraries)
Online mapping - Medline Total journals indexed 4,627 Free journals (246): Total content free online. Source: Delayed free access (195): Content free after delay of 6 months to 3 years. Source: Other priced journals (3263): Published by commercial, university, and scholarly presses.
Online mapping - PubMed Central Total journals 169 PMC "open access" (69): PubMed Central identifies this group as journals which have "some or all open access articles available in PMC immediately, even if the rest of the journal is not yet free". PLoS (2) Delayed free access (31): Accessible after: 2 months (1 title) 3 months (3 titles) 6 months (13 titles) 12 months (7 titles) 24 months (6 titles) Unspecified (1 title) BioMed Central (59): 6 titles only are indexed in Medline. Back files (8) Note: not all journals deposited with PubMed Central are indexed in Medline.
Journal access programmes Evolution in publishing: move from print to online journals Evolution in ICT: globalization of access to Internet Evolution in library role: move to consortial negotiations & services "Agendas" and goals of parent institutions
Focus on building libraries & library consortia in developing countries PERI Commitment to priced access Training, some funding All subjects 22 countries – Asia (4), Latin America (3), Africa (10), Eastern Europe (2), Central Asia (3) Prices negotiated per publisher Universities & research institutes most active users Libraries manage authentication & portals
Focus on building developing country libraries & library consortia eIFL Commitment to Open Access Training, grants for consortia building Social sciences & humanities, science & technology 43 countries – Eastern Europe (17), Central Asia (8), Africa (15), Asia (3) Prices negotiated per publisher eIFL IP
Access through "Northern" institutions Negotiated access for named individuals as off-site users eJDS – Abdus Salem International Centre for Theoretical Physics, Trieste Ptolemy Project, University of Toronto Programme design caters to user population
Publishers' programmes HighWire Free Access to Developing Economies Targets individual users No registration – users identified by incoming IP (participating publishers pay HW for this service) 62 countries – the World Bank's "low income economies" + Djibouti 102 titles - biomedicine
Publishers' programmes SciELO Free access to all 229 titles from Brasil (134), Chile (38), Costa Rica (9), Cuba (11), Mexico (10), PAHO/WHO (2), Spain (7), Venezuela (18) Partnership – BIREME (Latin America and Caribbean Centre on Health Sciences Information) with national institutions
Publishers' programmes Bioline International Operated by bioscientists & librarians Goal of reducing South-North knowledge gap Committed to open access – 15 titles free to all 39 titles from Brazil (2), Chile (2), Colombia (1), Cuba (2), India (11), Kenya (3), Malaysia (2), Nigeria (8), Senegal (1), Turkey (2), Uganda (1), Venezuela (2)
Journal access through broader UN agency agenda HINARI & AGORA - goals Facilitate high quality & timely research Enhance curriculum for teaching & training More accurate & informed advice to policy makers Reduce the "publishing gap" & improve quality of locally produced journals Connect developing world researchers with the international scientific community
Journal access through broader UN agency agenda HINARI & AGORA broader goal: improve food security and health
United Nations Framework Millennium Agenda Focus on "Digital divide" Aim for 2015: United Nations Millennium Development Goals
WHO Consultation Main information problems of developing country health / medical researchers identified as: no access to the priced literature (journals) difficulties competing for research grants barriers to publication in major journals need for mechanism for duplicate / modified publication in local journals
HINARI / AGORA Partnership Publishers (full text journals + other resources) WHO & FAO (administration) Yale & Cornell (site architecture) TDR & Africa Office (outreach & training) NLM (Medline links & search filter) Johns Hopkins, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (evaluation)
The boundaries and names shown and the designations used on this map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. © WHO All rights reserved HINARI and AGORA eligible countries
HINARI today Free/nominally-priced access to 2,800+ key biomedical & related social science research journals institutions registered in 104 countries (of 113 registered) 65+ publishers currently offer content Portal menu, online registration, user support, training
AGORA Sister program for agriculture Free access to 600+ journals 440+ institutions registered from 56 countries (of 69 eligible) 20+ participating publishers Close coordination with HINARI for portal architecture, administration, outreach & training
Are these programmes working? Feedback from participants Very positive about accessing journals Biggest constraint – slow Internet Enormous need for training Difficult to compile usage statistics COUNTER compliance not uniform Difficult to know what is a "good level of usage"
Are these programmes working? PERI – 2004 usage data Regular usage data available from only 6/7 (of 16/18) publishers 370,000 full-text downloads HINARI – 2004 usage 103,400 login sessions (individual & shared) 1,7000,000 full-text downloads
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