Free access to biomedical journals

Nature Publishing Group (NPG) and INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) have announced that they will provide free access to more than 65 NPG journals for a number of developing world countries.

NPG will make its biomedical collection of journals available to over 20 INASP partner countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America through INASP’s Programme for the Enhancement of Research Information (PERI). The high impact journals in this collection include NPG’s flagship journal Nature, the Nature Clinical Practice series, the Nature Research journals and Nature Reviews journals in the life sciences and medicine, and more than 40 journals published by NPG on behalf of societies.

Through PERI, INASP cooperates with publishers in the developed world to facilitate access to their publications within developing and emerging countries. INASP takes a holistic approach to enhancing worldwide access to information and PERI is complemented by programmes at all stages of the communication cycle including library development, and working with local editors and researchers.

‘The impact of the possibilities afforded by digital libraries for researchers in developing countries continues to grow,’ comments Lucy Browse, head of information delivery at INASP. ‘We are very pleased to be able to include NPG amongst the publishers who support sustainable access to their journals, e-books and databases within our partner and network countries through PERI. The response to the announcement from our in-country coordination teams has been very positive.’