E-drug: Free journal access
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Good news for developing countries! Which journal will be next? Copied as
fair
use. HH]
Gut 2001;49:1 (July)
Editorial
Getting our journals to developing countries
For some years now it has been our policy to give gratis
subscriptions to our journals to applicants from countries in the
developing world. However, in practice this has had its difficulties.
Many developing countries have either poor or non-existent postal
services and granting a print subscription can often be problematic
and expensivethe marginal cost of sending Gut to Africa is around
GBP 25 each year. An editorial in the BMJ sets out the arguments
very clearly.1 We know that the gap between the rich and poor
countries is widening. Whilst those of us in the developed world
have information overload, the developing countries have bare
library shelves. The internet gives us the opportunity to narrow the
gap. The marginal cost of giving access to the electronic edition of
Gut is close to zero. What is more, those in resource poor countries
can access electronic journals at exactly the same time as those in
the developed world. Even better, they can access what is relevant
rather than what is provided, much of which isn't relevant. Best of
all, they can participate in the debate using the rapid response
facility on the web site in a way that was almost impossible with
the slowness of print distribution. Access to the electronic edition
of Gut will be provided free automatically to those from countries
defined as poor under the human development indexes of the
United Nations and the World Bank
(www.worldbank.org/data/databytopic/class.htm). The BMA and
the British Society of Gastroenterology have made funds available
for the installation of Digital Island on all our journal web sites. This
clever piece of software recognises where the user is coming from
and will give unrestricted access to the whole web site to users
from those developing countries we choose to designate. BMJ.com
will continue to be free to those in the developing world whatever
happens in the developed world. The income that we get from
resource poor countries is minimal; and facilitating information
supply should encourage development, improvement in health
care, and eventually create a market. The problem with this vision
is the lack of access to the world wide web in the developing
world. While tens of millions of people have access in the United
States, it is only thousands in most African countries; and access in
Africa is often painfully slow, intermittent, and hugely expensive
relative to access in the United States (where it's often free). Power
cuts happen every day in many resource poor countries. Yet there's
every reason to expect that access should increase dramatically.
India currently has a million people with internet access, but this is
expected to rise to 40 million within five years. Similarly dramatic
increases are expected in Nigeria. Technological developments like
access to radio and the proliferation of satellites will render
irrelevant the many problems of telephone access in Africa. Rapid
progress will also be made because many international
organisations such as Unesco, the British government, the World
Bank, and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation are increasingly
interested in helping improve information access in resource poor
countries. The challenge will be sustainability. It is easy for donors
to invest money and reap the rewards of short term success. But
enhancing information flow will make no impact on health if
projects continue only as long as their funding lasts. Information
cannot be separated from the capacity of a healthcare system to
work effectively over time. How is it possible to influence the
context within which information will flow, the apparently
intractable political, economic, and organisational constraints that
disable rather than enable information to work for people?
Publishers in the rich world have a part to play, and we hope that
by making access to Gut on line free to those in the developing
world, we are making our own small contribution.
Michael J G Farthing
Editor
Alex Williamson
Publishing Director
References
1. Godlee F, Horton R, Smith R. Global information flow. BMJ
2000;321:776-777
--
Send mail for the `E-Drug' conference to `e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.
Information and archive http://www.healthnet.org/programs/edrug.html
Mail administrative requests to `majordomo@usa.healthnet.org'.
For additional assistance, send mail to: `owner-e-drug@usa.healthnet.org'.