[Pharm-policy] tiered pricing for Access to biomedical journals

[James Love]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: tiered pricing for Access to biomedical journals
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 14:55:20 +0200
From: Els Torreele <etorreel@vub.ac.be>
To: James Love <love@cptech.org>

FYI

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: tdr> Access to biomedical journals
Date: Thu, 12 Jul 2001 01:47:39 +0200
From: kleinm@who.ch
To: tdr-scientists@who.ch

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                  WHO Press Release  WHO/32  9 July 2001

               WHO and top publishers announce breakthrough
      on developing countries'access to leading biomedical journals

London - The World Health Organization and the world's six biggest
medical journal publishers today announce a new initiative which will
enable close to 100 developing countries to gain access to vital
scientific information that they otherwise could not afford.

The arrangement agreed to by the six publishers would allow almost 1000
of the world'ss leading medical and scientific journals to become
available through the Internet to medical schools and research
institutions in developing countries for free or at deeply-reduced
rates.

Overseeing the signing of the Statement of Intent by senior executives
of the publishers, Dr Gro Harlem Brundtland, Director-General of WHO,
said: "As a direct consequence of this arrangement, many thousands of
doctors, researchers and health policy-makers among others will be able
to use the best-available scieentific evidence to an unprecedented
degree
to help them improve the health of their populations. It is perhaps the
biggest step ever taken towards reducing the health information gap
between rich an d poor countries."

Until now, biomedical journal subscriptions, both electronic and print,
have been priced uniformly for medical schools, research centres and
similar institutions irrespective of geographical location. Annual
subscription prices cost on average several hundred dollars per title.
Manyy key titles cost more than $1500 per year. This has made it all but
impossible for the large majority of health and research institutions in
the poorest countries to access critical scientific information.

Scheduled to start in January 2002, the initiative is expected to last
for at least 3 years while being monitored for progress. It will benefit
bona fide academic and research institutions, which depend on timely
access to biomedical journals. Between now and the end of this year,
these instituttions will be identified individually and the process put
in place so that they can receive and use access authentication. All
parties-the publishers and the participating institutions will learn
from this experience. Decisions about how to proceed after the
initiative will grow from the precedents it sets, and will be informed
by the working relationships which have developed among the partners.

The initiative is an important step in the establishment of the Health
InterNetwork, a project introducced by United Nations' Secretary-General
Kofi Annan at the UN Millennium Summit last year. Led by WHO, the Health
InterNetwork aims to strengthen public health services by providing
public health workers, researchers and policy makers access to
high-quality, relevant and timely health information through an Internet
portal. It further aims to improve communication and networking. As key
components, the project will provide training as well as information and
communication technology applications for  public health.

Working with the British Medical Journal and the Open Society Institute
of the Soros foundation network, WHO approached the 6 biggest medical
journal publishers, Blackwell, Elsevier Science, the Harcourt Worldwide
STM Group, Wolters Kluwer International Health & Science, Springer
Verlag and John Wiley, with the aim of bringing them together with the
countries concerned to seek a more affordable pricing structure for
online access to their international biomedical journals.

The ouutcome is a tiered-pricing model developed by the publishers that
will make nearly 1000 of the 1240 top international biomedical journals
available to institutions in the 100 poorest countries free of charge or
at significantly reduced rates.

For further information, journalists can contact Mr Gregory Hartl, WHO
Spokesperson, WHO, Geneva. Tel. +41 22 791 4458; Fax +41 22 791 4858;
Email: hartlg@who.int

All WHO Press Releases, Fact Sheets and Features as well as other
information on this subject  can be obtained on Internet on the WHO home
page http://www.who.int


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