PRESS RELEASE: CrossRef and INASP sign agreement for developing country journals

[Pippa Smart <psmart@inasp.info>]

With apologies for cross-posting

INASP to join CrossRef linking initiative

Oxford, UK December 19, 2006.

INASP are delighted to announce that agreement has been reached 
with CrossRef, the multi-publisher linking association, to 
include journals from developing countries within their linking 
network.

This partnership greatly contributes to the INASP mission to 
enable worldwide access to information, and our work with 
publishers in developing and transitional countries to improve 
the quality and visibility of their publications.

At this time journals participating in the Nepal, Vietnam and 
Bangladesh Online programmes will be included, plus the journals 
that comprise the African Journals OnLine collection 
(www.ajol.info).

Pippa Smart, INASP's Head of Publishing Initiatives stated "For 
journals that are largely invisible to most of the scientific 
community the importance of linking cannot be overstressed. We 
are therefore delighted to be working with CrossRef to promote 
discovery of journals published in the less developed countries. 
We believe that an integrated discovery mechanism which includes 
journals from all parts of the world is vital to global research 
- not only benefiting the editors and publishers with whom we 
work."

Ed Pentz, CrossRef's Executive Director, commented, "For some 
time CrossRef has been exploring how it could partner with 
publishers and journal publishing initiatives in regions of the 
world where scholarship and publishing are less accessible. We 
believe offering CrossRef's services on an affordable basis to 
qualified publishers in these regions and interlinking them with 
the global research literature will help raise the visibility of 
these journals and contribute to their success."

INASP

The International Network for the Availability of Scientific 
Publications is a UK registered educational charity. Its vision 
is that all people are able to access and contribute information, 
ideas and knowledge necessary to drive sustainable and equitable 
development; and a mission to enable worldwide access to 
information and knowledge with particular emphasis on the needs 
of developing and transitional countries. To implement this, 
INASP works with partners around the world to encourage the 
creation and production of information, to promote sustainable 
and equitable access to information, to foster collaboration and 
networking, and to strengthen local capacities to manage and use 
information and knowledge. For more information on INASP please 
see www.inasp.info or send an email to inasp@inasp.info

CrossRef

CrossRef is a non-profit membership association, founded and 
directed by publishers. Its mission is to improve access to 
published scholarship through collaborative technologies. 
CrossRef operates a cross-publisher citation linking system, and 
is an official DOI (Digital Object Identifier) registration 
agency. The names of actual companies and products mentioned 
herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. See 
www.crossref.org

CONTACT:  Sioux Cumming, scumming@inasp.info

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CHRISTMAS BREAK: I will be on holiday through the Christmas period - from
Friday 23 December, returning to work on Monday 8 January.

Pippa Smart (Mrs)
Head, Publishing Initiatives
International Network for the Availability of Scientific Information (INASP)
Email: psmart@inasp.info
Web: www.inasp.info

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INASP is a registered charity: No. 1106349