WHO PRESS RELEASE WHO/32  9 JULY
(voir la version francaise plus bas)

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's 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 scientific 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 and
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. Many 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
institutions 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 introduced 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 outcome 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. Telephone (+41 22) 791 4458; Fax (+41 22) 791
4858; Email: [log in to unmask] 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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