The United Nations Environment Program, Yale University, International Association of Scientific Technical and Medical Publishers, and over 340 international publishers and prestigious scientific societies and associations announced on November 6, 2007, the launch of the second phase of ‘Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE), a global development consortium that was founded in October 2006 to provide developing countries access to one of the world’s largest collections of environmental science research online, and for little or no cost.

OARE launched the first phase of its activities late in 2006, opening its doors to 70 of the world’s poorest nations (GNI per capita below $1000). In 12 months, 500 public institutions and local non governmental organizations have enrolled each receiving access to scientific literature that, with a US annual retail subscription value in excess of $1.5 million, represents approximately 75 percent of the world’s most prestigious and highly cited scientific research in the environmental sciences. Enrollment in these countries is free.

“Providing practitioners, researchers, and scientists with online access to scientific research on the environment has been a long held dream and desire by institutions around the world. OARE is contributing greatly to the reduction in the North-South scientific gap and digital divide…and to the intellectual foundation of environmental institutions in many developing nations,” said

Achim Steiner, Executive Director, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), referring in a recorded statement to the program’s continuing activities.

In addition to receiving a remarkable quantity of research from around the word, enrolled institutions have also been provided access to international scientific search engines (A&I Databases), intellectual tools leading scientific and professional communities use to search for information on specific topics within thousands of scientific publications from around the world.

In the second phase of OARE, which begins on November 6, 2007,  the consortium will open its doors to more than 30 new countries, areas and territories with a higher level of income (i.e. GNI per capita between $1000 and $3000), including Albania, Algeria, Belarus, Boznia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria,

Cape Verde, Columbia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Guatemala, Iraq, Jamaica, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Serbia and Montenegro, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Morocco, Namibia, Paraguay, Peru, Romania, Tunisia, Western Samoa, Republic of Serbia, Suriname, Swaziland, Syrian Arab Republic, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Tonga, Vanuatu and the West Bank and Gaza.

James Gustave Speth, Dean of Yale University, School of Forestry & Environmental Studies said that “In an age characterized by rapid globalization and exponential expansion of scientific knowledge, it is not surprising that the scientific gap between the developed and developing countries has assumed great importance in the international development community. Thanks to advances in information and communication technologies and the generosity of many publishers, there is now an unprecedented opportunity to provide less-developed countries intellectual resources that we in the developed world take for granted.”

After a free 3 month trial period, these institutions in these countries are asked to pay an annual enrollment fee of $1000. Representing less than 0.1% of the annual retail subscription value of resources in OARE, all of these fees will be reinvested in training activities in developing countries.

Also on November 6, 2007,  OARE announced the launch of a new technological infrastructure designed with help from top programmers at Microsoft Corporation, OARE’s newest technology partner, and the introduction of Ex Libris SFX software to the program, a remarkable new tool that allows developing countries to open full text articles directly from within international research databases, dramatically reducing the time required to search for and access international research.

“Ex Libris is proud to support this important global initiative and to provide its SFX linking solution to enable scientists in developing countries to access the critical information needed for their research,” said Robert Mercer, Ex Libris President of North America.

Enabled by technology and guided by shared vision, the OARE consortium is increasing in the number and diversity of its participating organizations and in the richness of its scientific holdings. The partners encourage developing-country organizations to explore the resources available in OARE, and encourage institutions interested in joining the consortium to contact them to learn more about how they might contribute to the OARE mission.

Note:

Institutions enroll in OARE by completing the online registration form available on the OARE website at www.oaresciences.org or writing to oare@oaresciences.org.

OARE Leaflet

OARE Poster

OARE Information Sheet

Contact:

OARE
United Nations Environment Programme
P.O. Box 30552
Nairobi, Kenya
adminunep@oaresciences.org