Leslie Chan

Participation in the global knowledge commons: Challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries

Purpose – This paper aims to provide a review of recent trends in the open access (OA) movement, as well as to discuss the significance of those trends for information access in developing countries.Design/methodology/approach – An analysis of the recent literature was carried out, focusing on the benefits of a greater information access in developing countries. The paper also brings together the diverse experiences from the authors on OA publishing and archiving with institutions in a number of developing countries.Findings – Knowledge workers in developing countries are now getting access to scholarly and scientific publications and electronic resources at a level that is unmatched historically. This is highly significant, if developing countries are to meet the millennium development goals. The OA movement and the growing number of Open Archive Initiative‐compliant institutional repositories promise to provide even greater access to resources and publications that were previously inaccessible. These lo...

Towards Open and Equitable Access to Research and Knowledge for Development

Leslie Chan and colleagues discuss the value of open access not just for access to health information, but also for transforming structural inequity in current academic reward systems and for valuing scholarship from the South.

Bioline Publications : How its evolution has mirrored the growth of the Internet

We describe the progress of Bioline Publications from birth to the present time and draw some conclusions from our experience.

Coronary angiography and dual-source computed tomography are complementary methods in diagnosis of significant stenosis of the right coronary artery originating from the left aortic sinus

Anomalous origin of the right coronary artery from the contralateral aortic sinus is a rare but potentially fatal congenital abnormality. We analyzed 8.066 consecutive coronary angiograms and found 4 cases demonstrating this anomaly. In 2 cases the right coronary artery was without significant atherosclerotic lesions and coursed between the aorta and pulmonary trunk. In the 2 other cases the right coronary artery was significantly stenosed. In the last case, diagnosis was based on angiographic and dual-source computed tomographic examinations. Dual-source computed tomography showed precisely the origin and course of the right coronary artery between the ascending aorta and pulmonary artery. Moreover, stenoses of the anomalous coronary artery were depicted. Subsequent coronary interventions required modification of the Amplatz left guiding catheter, which enabled a sufficient support even for coronary artery stenting. Both methods seem to be complementary in the diagnostic and therapeutic process of this coronary anomaly.

Publishing and Disseminating Science Findings

AGRIS became operational in 1975 as an international initiative aiming to build a common information system for science and technology in agriculture and related subjects, based on a collaborative network of institutions. A database of almost 3 million bibliographic records has been accumulated over 30 years. An analysis of the AGRIS network in 2000 revealed some major constraints, such as limitations in the capacities of the member institutions, inaccessibility of the full text of documents, the incompleteness of the coverage of literature, and the emergence of several independent systems.

Open Access in Latin America: a Paragon for the Rest of the World

SciELO is a remarkable decentralized publishing platform harboring over 1,200 peer-reviewed journals from fifteen countries located in four continents South America. Central-North America, Europe and Africa. Redalyc, based in Mexico, is another extraordinary system hosting almost 1,000 journals from fourteen Latin American countries plus Spain and Portugal. Governments around the world spend billions of dollars on infrastructure to support research excellence; platforms such as SciELO and Redalyc are extensions of this much larger investments in research. They reflect an enlightened understanding in Latin America that the wide dissemination of and access to research results is as important as the research itself. The rest of the world would do well to take note.