The HINARI is a commendable endeavor on behalf of the WHO to bring to the carers in developing countries the power of evidence either at no cost or greatly reduced costs. This is in keeping with the global move for Open Access to evidence published in medical journals. ...
With this definition in view, the HINARI is apparently excellent news for medical carers and researchers from the developing nations. But, within the initiative lies a small issue. The countries eligible for HINARI membership are classed into two bands. Band 1: Countries with a GNI < 1000$, where the institutions are eligible for completely free membership to the HINARI and Band 2: Countries with a GNI of $1000-3000 which can register for a somewhat reasonable fee of 1000$/year/institution. The GNI values are on the basis of the World Bank data for 2006. However, the crux of the case lies in the fact that countries like India, Pakistan and China (with GNI 2006 of 820$, 770$ and 2010$ respectively) have been omitted. ... At this juncture, the HINARI reveals that several eligible countries are not listed in the HINARI because ‘the publishers participating in HINARI have not, for the time being, extended their offer to countries where they have significant levels of existing subscriptions and, in some cases, local sales staff.’ Translated, it stands that the publishers smell big money in these developing countries and hence the hold out.
Issues like these are a big blow to the development of the proper dissemination of the Open Access initiative and unless such financial pettyfogging is overlooked, the real goals of the commendable HINARI will not be fulfilled. ...
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
