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UN's
Online Access to Research in the Environment
(OARE)
30 October 2006 – Scientists, researchers, and
policy makers in 108 developing countries will soon receive access to one of the
world’s largest collections of scholarly environmental science journals, thanks
to a United Nations-backed on-line initiative
launched
today.
Access will be provided through more than 1,200 eligible
institutions - universities, research institutes, environmental ministries,
libraries, and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) - for free or at nominal
cost in countries in Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the
Caribbean, and Eastern Europe.
The portal, which brings together the work of more than
200 prestigious publishers, societies and associations, is being coordinated by
the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) and Yale University, and is supported by
the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the John D. and Catherine T.
MacArthur Foundation.
Over 1,000 scholarly scientific and technical journal
titles, in fields ranging from biotechnology, botany and climate change to
environmental toxicology and pollution, oceanography and zoology, will be
provided through a portal - Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE)
- presented in English, Spanish and French.
OARE is a new and inspiring example of international
cooperation that can contribute to the reduction of the North-South scientific
gap and digital divide, objectives that are both at the top of the UN agenda and
the UN Millennium Development Goals,” said Achim Steiner,
UNEP Executive Director.
The initiative will also provide Abstract and Index
Research Databases (A&I Databases) - intellectual tools the scientific and
professional community use to search for information within thousands of
scholarly publications.
Access for institutions in the 70 poorest countries will
be free while there will be a nominal charge for institutions in 38 lower middle
income countries, fees which will be reinvested to support continued training
and outreach activities in these countries.
OARE will be managed in close cooperation with two
earlier UN initiatives - the Health Internetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI),
launched by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO)
in 2001 to provide research to the medical community in developing nations, and
Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture (AGORA),
launched by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
and Cornell University in 2003 to provide research to the agricultural
community.
Source: UN News Service
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