Re: Open Access: No Benefit for Poor Scientists

[Phil Davis <pmd8@cornell.edu>]

Maurice (and others),

I believe that we are making the same point.  I am arguing that 
Willinsky's description is not valid.  It is not valid because of 
projects like HINARI, AGORA and OARE, and it is also not valid 
because it ignores the fact that researchers bypass the 
subscription model and engage in the informal sharing of 
articles.  The phrase "Open Access", like the phrase "Digital 
Divide" creates false dichotomies between those who have and 
those who don't.  It is a language of opposites and extremes. 
It is this rhetoric that I am against.

see original post:

http://scholarlykitchen.sspnet.org/2009/01/14/oa-developing-nations/

--Phil Davis

Maurice Long wrote:

> Phil - I would like to comment on the following paragraph: "In 
> the introduction to his widely-acclaimed book, "The Access 
> Principle," John Willinsky describes the dire state of a 
> medical library in Kenya with access to only 5 journals.  We 
> are given the image of a faculty completely unable to conduct 
> medical research and are left with feeling of moral outrage. It 
> is not fair, something has to be done, and Open Access is the 
> answer."
>
> I read this posting yesterday morning, before leaving to visit 
> the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology here 
> in Nairobi, Kenya, meeting with the university deputy librarian 
> and a plant pathology researcher. Both say access to AGORA and 
> OARE, and even HINARI has made a huge difference to learning, 
> teaching and research at the university.
>
> On Tuesday I visited the Kenya Medical Research Institute also 
> in Nairobi and met with an academic and a researcher whose work 
> has been transformed over the last 2 or 3 years by access to 
> HINARI. The young researcher is preparing her first paper for 
> publication and relied very extensively on HINARI to do this.
>
> Yesterday, we met a doctor in palliative care in a hospice 
> attached to Nairobi's largest hospital. His research and 
> clinical work have improved massively because of access to 
> HINARI. He now finds himself consulted by other physicians, 
> seeking advice in the latest advances in palliative medicine.
>
> Together with colleagues from the publishing community and our 
> key technical partner, I have met clinicians, researchers, 
> academics, students and librarians on a visit to Kenya during 
> which I also observed a skills training course, run as part of 
> the HINARI, AGORA and OARE programmes, collectively now known 
> as Research4Life. We are keen to see how these programmes are 
> working in practice and the very real impact they are having.
>
> The image described of a medical faculty unable to carry out 
> research is outdated and does not reflect the reality where 
> 4500 institutions in 108 countries worldwide have access to a 
> rich supply of primary research from 5000 health and 2000 
> environmental, agricultural, and other related journals, books, 
> databases, etc. In the majority of cases, this access is 
> entirely free, in others at nominal cost. In Kenya alone by 
> July 2008, more than 80 universities, research institutes, 
> hospitals, and other public organizations had registered for 
> entirely free access to HINARI. Of course, many institutions 
> there and in the rest the developing world still suffer from 
> very inadequate internet connection, computing, power and other 
> infrastructure problems and there is a long way to go before 
> the digital divide is fully bridged.
>
> But I believe HINARI, AGORA, OARE are significant and 
> successful steps forward and it just isn't true that medical 
> libraries in Kenya are denied access to the journals they need.
>
> Maurice Long
> Internat. Assoc. of STM Publishers
> Research4Life