PNAS has taken another step toward ensuring worldwide dissemination of scientific knowledge by giving 81 developing countries free and immediate online access. In doing so, PNAS is helping build scientific capacity in low-income areas of the world. Like the National Academy of Sciences, PNAS is committed to providing broad access to current scientific research across many fields and to fostering globalization of research tools and advances.
The benefits of science are self-evident and ever increasing. Before the advent of electronic publication, these benefits were first bestowed on those in countries with immediate access to the scientific literature. After a long sea voyage, journals were received at more distant sites. Now, with online publication, scientific advances are available everywhere at the same time— everywhere they can be afforded, that is. The breaching of the time barrier has revealed an economic barrier to universal access to scientific discoveries. Many countries cannot afford the cost of journal subscriptions. We have therefore made PNAS available free in those countries. We plan to extend the list of recipients as we assess the impact of this new initiative. We hope that authors who believe their work is of special relevance to developing countries will be encouraged by this initiative to publish in PNAS. We also hope to recruit new readers and authors. We believe that our modest investment will be well worth it.
Free distribution to developing countries is PNAS's latest initiative in promoting the dissemination of science. In January 2000, PNAS established a policy of providing free access to back issues online, making PNAS content free at both the PubMed Central and PNAS Online web sites after a delay of 6 months. In addition to making existing content freely available online, we contracted to have prior years' issues, dating back to 1990, digitized and added to the archive. Special features and papers from the National Academy of Sciences colloquia and Frontiers of Science symposia, as well as online supporting information, continue to be available for free immediately upon publication.
As the flagship journal of the National Academy of Sciences, we welcome taking a leadership role in making content more freely available. We invite other journals to adopt liberal free back-issue policies.
Table.
Countries with Free Online Access to PNAS
| Albania Angola Armenia Azerbaijan Bangladesh Benin Bhutan Bosnia and Herzegovina Botswana Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burma Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Cape Verde Central African Republic Chad China Comoros Congo, Democratic Republic Côte d'lvoire Djibouti Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Ethiopia Gambia, The |
Georgia Ghana Guatemala Guinea Guinea-Bissau Haiti Indonesia Kazakhstan Kiribati Kosovo Kyrgyz Republic Lao People's Democratic Republic Latvia Lesotho Liberia Lithuania Macedonia, Former Yugoslav Republic Madagascar Malawi Maldives Mali Mauritania Moldova Mongolia Montenegro Mozambique Myanmar |
Namibia Nepal Niger Nigeria Philippines Romania Rwanda Samoa São Tomé and Principe Senegal Sierra Leone Solomon Islands Somalia Sudan Swaziland Tajikistan Tanzania Togo Tuvalu Uganda Ukraine Uzbekistan Vanuatu Yemen, Republic of Yugoslavia, Federal Republic of Zambia Zimbabwe |