New UN online scheme allows free academic journal access to poorest nations
The United Nations has partnered with the scientific publishing industry to provide research institutions in least developed countries free access to online journals, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced today at the launch of the scheme in Geneva.
The United Nations has partnered with the scientific publishing industry to provide research institutions in least developed countries free access to online journals, the UN World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) announced today at the launch of the scheme in Geneva.
The new UN-brokered programme, Access to Research for Development and Innovation (aRDi), will allow industrial property offices, universities and research institutes to subscribe free of charge to prominent science and technology publications including the American Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences, Oxford University Press and Royal Society of Chemistry, among others.
The World Health Organization (WHO), Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), and UN Environment Programme (UNEP) provided advice and expertise gained from similar initiatives which offer access to journals in their respective fields of the UN agencies.
“Knowledge contained in scientific and technical literature is critical to the innovation process,” WIPO Director-General Francis Gurry said at the start of a two-day gathering of ministers and senior officials from discussing ways intellectual property policy can create wealth in least developed countries (LDCs).
In certain developing countries, low-cost access to a range of key online scientific and technical publications will also be afforded to industrial property offices.