AFRO-NETS> HINARI website now officially launched

[Irene Bertrand <bertrandi@who.ch>]

HINARI website now officially launched
--------------------------------------

Dear colleagues, 

The HINARI website is now officially launched - see below WHO's lat-
est Press Release.

Irene Bertrand
mailto:bertrandi@who.ch

--
Press Release WHO/7
31 January 2002

WHO AND TOP PUBLISHERS TODAY LAUNCH "ACCESS TO RESEARCH" INTERNET 
INITIATIVE FOR DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Many thousands of doctors, researchers, health policy-makers and oth-
ers 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 Or-
ganization 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 in-
formation 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 Sci-
ence, 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 af-
fordable 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 insti-
tutions in those countries. That availability begins today with the 
opening of the Health InterNetwork website:
http://www.healthinternetwork.net

A second stage will involve similar access at significantly reduced 
prices for institutions in the other countries. WHO and the publish-
ers will work with the Open Society Institute of the Soros foundation 
network and other public and private partners to extend the initia-
tive; for example, through training for research staff, and improving 
Internet connectivity. The "Access to Research" initiative is ex-
pected 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 and 
participating institutions.

The initiative itself is a major aspect of the work of the Health In-
terNetwork 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 ser-
vices by providing public health workers, researchers and policy mak-
ers 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." 

For further information, journalists can contact 
Mr Thomson Prentice
WHO, Geneva, Switzerland
Tel: +41-22-791-4224
Fax: +41-22-791-4870
mailto:prenticet@who.int

All WHO Press Releases, Fact Sheets and Features as well as other in-
formation on this subject can be obtained on Internet on the WHO home 
page 
http://www.who.int/

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