 Health
InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI) - WHO
WHO AND TOP PUBLISHERS TODAY LAUNCH
"ACCESS TO RESEARCH" INTERNET
INITIATIVE FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Many thousands of doctors, researchers, health policy-makers and others in
about 70 developing countries will from today gain free access through the
Internet to one of the world's largest collections of biomedical
literature.
They will benefit from an initiative launched by the World Health
Organization and the world's six biggest medical journal publishers, which
WHO Director-General Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland has described as
"perhaps the biggest step ever taken towards reducing the health
information gap between rich and poor countries."
The "Access to Research" initiative enables accredited
universities, medical schools, research centres and other public
institutions in the developing countries to gain access to the wealth of
scientific information contained in more than 1000 different biomedical
journals produced by the six publishers. Until now, subscriptions to these
journals, both electronic and print, have been priced uniformly for such
institutions, irrespective of geographical location. Many key titles cost
more than US$1500 per year, and the average subscription costs several
hundred dollars, putting the journals beyond the reach
of the large majority of health and research institutions in the poorest
countries.
Last year WHO, working with the British Medical Journal, approached the
six biggest medical journal publishers: Blackwell, Elsevier Science, the
Harcourt Worldwide STM Group, Wolters Kluwer International Health &
Science, Springer Verlag and John Wiley. The aim was to bring them
together with the countries concerned to seek a more affordable pricing
structure for online access to their international biomedical journals.
The first stage of the initiative will make more than 1,000 of their
journals available free or at significantly reduced charges to
institutions in those countries. That availability begins today with the
opening of the Health InterNetwork website
A second stage will involve similar access at significantly reduced prices
for institutions in the other countries. WHO and the publishers will work
with the Open Society Institute of the Soros foundation network and other
public and private partners to extend the initiative; for example, through
training for research staff, and improving Internet connectivity. The
"Access to Research" initiative is expected to last for at least
three years, while being monitored for progress. Decisions about how to
proceed with further developments will grow from the precedent it sets,
and will be informed by the
working relationships which have evolved among the publishers
andparticipating institutions.
The initiative itself is a major aspect of the work of the Health
InterNetwork project which was introduced by United Nations' Secretary
General Kofi Annan at the UN Millennium Summit in the year 2000. Led by
WHO, the Health InterNetwork aims to strengthen public health services by
providing public health workers, researchers and policy makers access to
high-quality, relevant and timely health information through an Internet
portal. It further aims to improve communication and networking. As key
components, the project will provide training as well as information and
communication technology applications for public health.
The project is led by Dr Michael Scholtz, Special Representative of the
WHO Director-General. He says: "Today sees the beginning of a new way
to bridge the digital divide in health, and an important move by the
publishers in facilitating the flow of health information, using the
Internet."
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