[D]o developing countries really need their own journals? Scientists, physicians, and health policy-makers in developing countries are faced with situations far different from those encountered by practitioners in industrialized countries....In developing countries...infectious diseases such as malaria, hydatid cyst, and diarrhea are still among the major killers....[T]he existing evidence established at the global level is sometimes not exactly what is needed to solve our local problems. It is thus essential for developing countries to conduct research on their own problems and to be able to make use of global knowledge in a local context. For all these reasons, developing countries should conduct their own research and present their somewhat different medical findings. This in turn necessitates that they publish their own medical/scientific journals....[But journals in developing countries face many problems.] Suggested Solutions....Thanks to the Internet, networking, and e-Journalism, it is now possible for any journal to become somewhat visible (Lawrence 521). Most journal Web sites can now be found through a number of well-known search engines (e.g., Google, Yahoo!, and Scirus). Also, PubMed Central (PMC), through providing free access to numerous journal articles, now plays an important role in increasing the visibility of a journal.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/25/2005 02:32:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
