The HINARI Access to Research Initiative of the World Health Organisation has announced the registration of the 2,500th institution to access free or low-cost online medical journals and databases. These publicly funded and non-profit institutions include universities, medical schools, hospitals and research institutes drawn from 109 developing countries. Through HINARI, they are able to access 3,750 journals online from 100 different publishers covering medicine, nursing and related health and social sciences – including Nature, the Nature journals and all journals published by Nature Publishing Group.

HINARI facilitates teaching, research and the delivery of health care in the developing world while helping researchers in these countries to get their work published and made available to a wider international audience. Access is free for institutions in countries with a GNP of less than $1000 per year while there is a small charge for countries with a GNP of $1000$3000. The income generated is used for local training initiatives.

Launched in January 2002, HINARI Access to Research Initiative is managed by the World Health Organisation in partnership with The International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical publishers, 100 publishers and Yale University Library. The HINARI website is the main port of call for thousands of librarians, scientists, students, medics and healthcare researchers in the world’s poorest countries. They benefit from free access to the leading international biomedical peer-reviewed journals and other information resources.

There are similar initatives for agricultural research (AGORA); and climate and environmental research (OARE). Nature and all Nature Publishing Group journals are included in these programmes.