Opening Access to Research in Africa

Online Information 2001 exhibitor news

Blackwell Publishing has announced a major step forward in ongoing efforts to open access to current primary research literature in the developing world.

Working closely with 500 learned societies and the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP), they will provide reduced rate online access to 600 leading peer-reviewed journals in, initially, six countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The funding is provided by partnerships between INASP, development programmes such as ENRECA (Danida) and Sida:SAREC and the universities, so that access to the journal content is free for the participating libraries and researchers.

Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, and Uganda will all benefit in the first instance. Researchers, students, lecturers, librarians and medical professionals within non-commercial organizations in these countries will have online access to Blackwell Publishings journals. Many of these are published on behalf of scholarly societies and include key titles in medicine, science, technology, social science and the humanities.

Blackwell Publishing will be on show in London later this year.

In December more than 350 companies at the very cutting edge of information technology will gather in the Olympia exhibition centre in London in what has become over the last quarter of a century the largest single show of its kind in the world.

The exhibition and conference, Online Information 2001, is once again being staged by Oxford-based Learned Information.

The exhibitors will be from around the world as well as there being many British representatives. Countries represented will include the Netherlands, Finland, Germany, France, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Belgium, Italy and Ireland.

Key speakers from Britain and further afield also will be sharing the latest news and views at scheduled conference sessions.

Blackwell Publishings initiative recognises the vital role that information and knowledge play in development. Individuals will be able to read and contribute to the advancement of research and use the knowledge gained to find local solutions to health, housing, education and employment issues.

As Bob Campbell, President of Blackwell Publishing has said, We hope that researchers and professionals within these African nations will truly benefit from access to the papers within the journals we publish. In many cases these journals are published on behalf of societies; we should also acknowledge their support of this initiative. Were delighted to be working with INASP on this and look forward to expanding journal readership in the region in the near future."

This marks the completion of the first phase of the Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI), a four-component programme coordinated by INASP aimed at supporting production, access and dissemination of international and national and regional research within and between developing and transitional countries. More information can be found at www.inasp.org.uk

For further information please contact:
Emily Gillingham      
Blackwell Publishing      
Osney Mead, Oxford, OX2 0EL, UK      
Tel: + 44 (0)1865 206410      
Fax: +44 (0)1865 206219      
Email: emily.gillingham@blacksci.co.uk      
www.blackwell-synergy.com