HINARI: Opening access in biomedicine and health

As one considers all the elements and issues of an open publishing environment, it is helpful to understand one of the programmes that exist to enable access in lowand middle-income countries. HINARI arose to meet the stated need for researchers in less resourced areas of the world to have access to up-to-date information in biomedicine, since university libraries and research institutions in lowand middleincome countries typically lack the ability to pay for subscriptions to important peer-reviewed journals that contain knowledge fundamental to their work. Lack of access to important knowledge, shared among journal subscribers, has hampered the ability to both do essential medical research as well as deliver quality healthcare. In March 2001, representatives from WHO met with senior staff from six of the largest international scientific publishers to explore ways of closing this critical information gap. That meeting birthed HINARI, the first of four programmes united under Research4Life, a collaboration including the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM) and Yale University Library, aiming to provide institutions in the world's least developed countries with access to vital information resources. If knowledge is power, then HINARI empowers universities, government ministries, research institutes, healthcare centres, and national NGOs to achieve their own goals and improve the health of their countries. As all the partners of HINARI are committed now beyond the 2015 horizon, at least through 2020, the programme can set long-term goals of reaching more institutions, increasing use of scientific evidence, and growing research capacity in lowand middle-income countries that can solve local problems or contribute to solving global ones.