From the point of view of authors, it is already shown that the visibility and impact of open access published papers is greatly increased (2). This is

Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2004 08:45:57 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun@mssrf.res.in> Friends: [The following has been posted by the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development on March 19, 2004, to the Health Information Forum sponsored by the WHO (HIF-net)] Recent messages have shown that the concept of Open Access is now beginning to be more widely understood and earlier misconceptions dispelled. We have responded individually to correspondents, but feel it would be helpful to provide further information to the general list. For some time, the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development has been promoting the importance of the open access movement for the strengthening of the science base in developing countries. The EPT web site (http://www.epublishingtrust.org) now contains much information on open access, particularly as it relates to developing countries. Additionally the Bioline International web site (http://www.bioline.org.br) contains the full text of some 28 journals published in developing countries, free to all. These journals contain much research of medical significance and so are of interest to this list. In order that developing countries are also part of the open access evolution, Bioline International has set up an Open Access Archive (bioline.utsc.utoronto.ca) specifically for developing country publishers. Much of the material on the main Bioline International site is now also archived in a way that is compatible with the open access search engines and so interoperable with the increasing numbers of Archives being established around the world. Institutional archiving was one of two routes recommended by the Soros-supported Budapest Open Access Initiative (1). As well as freeing research literature from the crippling toll-access situation, it also promotes the research output of all contributing institutes. The establishment of institutional archives in the developing countries ensures that their national research becomes mainstream and contributes on an equal footing to the global knowledge pool. It is important to understand that open access Institutional Archives contain already reviewed and published research papers. Quality is unaffected. Scientists can continue to publish in their preferred refereed journals, merely archiving the already published papers in their institutional archives, simultaneously or subsequently. Approaching 60% of publishers (including Nature publisher and Elsevier) allow simultaneous archiving to take place. The remainder seem likely to follow, or accept institutional archiving a few months after the primary publication. Publishers now recognise that this will not affect their sales - as has been clearly demonstrated by the physics communities' archive, http://arxiv.org, which has existed side by side with prestigious physics journals for more than 10 years now. the ultimate aim of scientific publishing and leads to the establishment of important research partnerships with fellow scientists in their field. The professional isolation felt by many scientists in developing countries is overcome. Open access archives can be established at almost no cost, or institutes may use an already-established archive. All software is free of charge and there is much technical help available to institutes (see below). This is therefore a highly appropriate route for developing country institutes to follow, and great strides are already being made. India is planning its second OA workshop and has a series of institute meetings planned (3); OA workshops are also planned this summer in Brasil and China to raise awareness and transfer technical support. The alternative BOAI route to open access is via the establishment of OA journals, the route followed by BioMedCentral, PubMedCentral and others. This route is likely to take longer to accomplish, but is making an important contribution to the freeing of research literature from unaffordable subscription charges. Again, quality of publications is firmly maintained. Attached, below, is a list of sites showing a) papers on OA developments, b) the growing international support for this endeavour, c) activities already underway in the developing world and technical information, such as access to the free software for the establishment of interoperable archives and a FAQ answering many common misunderstandings. The connectivity problem is gradually being overcome, as shown by the message from Najeeb Al-Shorbaji (shorbajin@emro.who.int), and it is important that developing countries are part of the information evolution now underway. The message from Dr.Vinod Scaria (drvinod@hotpop.com) shows how fast things are beginning to move and how the impact of OA publications is encouraging publishers, authors and their institutes. The problem of language (upieks@fetp.org) remains and should be the main focus of development once access problems are resolved. We hope the following links are of value to list readers. If further information or help is required, please contact us. Barbara Kirsop, EPT Secretariat, UK, barbara@biostrat.demon.co.uk Leslie Chan, Trustee EPT, Bioline International, Canada, chan@utsc.utoronto.ca Subbiah Arunachalam, Trustee EPT, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, India arun@mssrf.res.in (1). Soros Budapest Open Access Initiative http://www.soros.org/openaccess/ (2). S. Lawrence paper in Nature, 411(6387):521, 2002 'Free online availability substantially increases a paper's impact' http://www.neci.nec.com/~lawrence/papers/online-nature01/ (3) 'India's march towards open access', Subbiah Arunachalam, recent SciDevNet paper http://www.scidev.net/Opinions/index.cfm?fuseaction=readOpinions&itemid=243& language=1 a) SOME INTERNATIONAL COMMITMENTS TO THE OPEN ACCESS MOVEMENT World Summit for the Information Society Declaration of Principles 3,28 and Plan of Action C3i and 22d http://www.wsis.org Wellcome Trust Statement of Support for OA http://www.wellcome.ac.uk Berlin Declaration (signed by many research institutes in Germany, France and other EU countries) http://www.zim.mpg.de/openaccess-berlin/berlindeclaration.html American Research Libraries, SPARC statement and guidelines http://www.arl.org/sparc/ b) DEVELOPING COUNTRY OA INITIATIVES AND PAPERS Bioline International main web site (Brazil/Canada non-profit initiative in support of developing country publishers) http://www.bioline.org.br Indian Institute of Science OA server http://www.iisc.ernet.in/ Bangalore OA workshop 2003 http://www.ias.ac.in/epubworkshop/curriculum.html L Chan, B Kirsop, 'Impact of OA on developing country science', Ariadne, 30, 2001 http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue30/oai-chan Open Access Now Interview of Subbiah Arunachalam http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/archive/?page=features&issue=11 c) FREE OA DEVELOPMENT SOFTWARE AND SUPPORT SERVICES OA archives information and support http://www.eprints.org Frequently Asked Question on OA http://www.eprints.org/self-faq/ Handbook for setting up eprints servers http://www.eprints.org/handbook/ OAIster search service http://www.oaister.org/ Directory of Open Access Journals http://www.curl.ac.uk/about/isca.html