[A2k] Biomedical Journals and Global Poverty: Is HINARI a Step Backwards?

[Teresa Hackett (eIFL)]

Biomedical Journals and Global Poverty: Is HINARI a Step Backwards?

http://medicine.plosjournals.org/perlserv/?request=3Dget-document&doi=3D10.=
1371%2Fjournal.pmed.0040220

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We fear that the loss of access to many key journals that are published
by the major companies could be a major setback to the education of
medical students in Peru and perhaps around the world. Furthermore, it
could make biomedical research in developing countries like Peru, a key
element in fighting poverty, even scarcer.

In conclusion, students and researchers in developing countries such as
Peru, working at the frontlines of global health problems, need to
access more biomedical journals in order to practice evidence-based
health care and conduct high-quality research. The recent loss of access
to many key biomedical journals in Peru could be a step backwards. We
hope the situation described in this letter might help lend support to
the proposal of Godlee et al., who suggested that the World Health
Organization and its partners should take the lead in establishing an
international collaborative group along the lines of the Global Fund to
fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to achieve the goal of =93Universal
access to essential health-care information by 2015=94 or =93Health
information for all=94 [4].