UN Helps Bridge the World’s ‘Scientific Capital Gap’ With More Access to Scholarly Work
New York, Oct 30 2006 2:00PM
Scientists, researchers, and policy makers in 108 developing countries will soon receive access to one of the world’s
largest collections of scholarly environmental science journals, thanks to a United Nations-backed on-line initiative
launched today.
Access will be provided through more than 1,200 eligible institutions - universities, research institutes, environmental
ministries, libraries, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - for free or at nominal cost in countries in Africa,
Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.
The portal, which brings together the work of more than 200 prestigious publishers, societies and associations, is being
coordinated by the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and Yale University, and is supported by the William and Flora
Hewlett Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Over 1,000 scholarly scientific and technical journal titles, in fields ranging from biotechnology, botany and climate
change to environmental toxicology and pollution, oceanography and zoology, will be provided through a portal - Online
Access to Research in the Environment (OARE) - presented in English, Spanish and French.
“OARE is a new and inspiring example of international cooperation that can contribute to the reduction of the
North-South scientific gap and digital divide, objectives that are both at the top of the UN agenda and the UN
Millennium Development Goals,” said Achim Steiner, UNEP Executive Director.
The initiative will also provide Abstract and Index Research Databases (A Databases) - intellectual tools the scientific and professional community use to search for information within
thousands of scholarly publications.
Access for institutions in the 70 poorest countries will be free while there will be a nominal charge for institutions
in 38 lower middle income countries, fees which will be reinvested to support continued training and outreach activities
in these countries.
OARE will be managed in close cooperation with two earlier UN initiatives - the Health Internetwork Access to Research
Initiative (HINARI), launched by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) in 2001 to provide research to the medical
community in developing nations, and Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA), launched by the UN Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and Cornell University in 2003 to provide research to the agricultural community.
ENDS