Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, May 11, 2007

Pakistan plans OA portal for all its journals

Pakistani Journals to be available for worldwide electronic access through Online Portal, Associated Press of Pakistan, May 11, 2007.  Excerpt:

Under Digital Library Programme of Higher Education Commission (HEC), an open-access online portal will be established through which all journals published in Pakistan will be made available for worldwide electronic access.

The portal will allow international exposure of research conducted within Pakistan, and will assist in international peer-review process of indigenous publications.

Once implemented, "PJOL; Pakistan Journals Online" will have a fully searchable web interface similar to that of any other international electronic journal database....

Comment.  This is a big step.  So far I don't know more, such as how these journals have been supported in the past, how they'll be supported after the transition, and whether Pakistan also plans to adopt an OA mandate for publicly-funded research --which might be published in a non-Pakistani journal.