CMAJ has joined hundreds of other scientific publications in promoting free online access for readers in developing nations. The Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI, www.healthinternetwork.net) is an attempt to provide unfettered access to biomedical information in countries where the annual per capita GNP is less than US$1000 annually.
CMAJ is 1 of the more than 2000 journals, databases, compendia and other publishing services participating in the exercise, which has already attracted 160 institutions in 50 countries. Other participants include the BMJ and JAMA, as well as their specialist journals, and The Lancet. Sixty countries are eligible for the free access.
“We are especially pleased to have CMAJ in HINARI,” said Maurice Long of the BMJ Publishing Group, who has been working with the World Health Organization to create the service. “Not only does it extend the range of French- language titles, it also extends the publisher donor base beyond the UK, US, Germany and the Netherlands.”
Long said the next step is improved connectivity. “With the development of such a rich resource, we now must call on the computer, telephone and especially Internet service provider industries to support this initiative.” — CMAJ