SciDev.Net

Developing countries are attractive places to run clinical trials, but in many places ethical oversight falls short.

Indian scientist and journal editor Padmanabhan Balaram discusses open archives — an alternative to open access for science publishing.

A US-sponsored course is helping increase South America's capacity to respond to disease outbreaks, write Andreas G. Lescano and colleagues.

Andreas von Bubnoff charts the rise of the e-book by analysing the efforts of a variety of organisations to create an online global library.

Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop and Subbiah Arunachalam review the benefits that 'open archiving' of scientific knowledge can bring to researchers in the developing world.

Leslie Chan, Barbara Kirsop and Subbiah Arunachalam give a comprehensive background to the need for open access publishing.

David Dickson looks at the different approaches being taken to increase access to scientific literature for developing-country researchers.

Les Grivell gives a rundown of the different approaches being used to free up access to scientific information, including self-archiving and open-access journals.

Maurice Long reports on the progress of the Health InterNetwork Access Initiative (HINARI), which provides institutions in developing countries with free or reduced-price online access to leading biomedical journals.

David Malakoff reports on the initial impact of PLoS Biology — an open-access electronic journal based on author fees launched this month — and examines its chances of long-term success.

A new biology journal aims to reinvent the economics of high-quality scientific publishing and make scientific literature freely available to everyone. Declan Butler examines the bottom line.

Massey Beveridge and colleagues from the Office of International Surgery in Canada describe a pioneering project to provide African doctors with access to electronic literature.

David Malakoff and Daniel Bachtold look at developments on both sides of the Atlantic that have wide-ranging implications for who owns, and who pays for, access to online science journals.

The number of scientific papers published by Indian scientists continues to fall. But T. V. Jayan asks whether this is an adequate index of scientific enterprise in the country.

The Library of Alexandria was once the ancient world's premier seat of learning. Alison Abbott explores whether its spirit can be revived in modern-day Egypt.

Originating in a schoolboy’s attempts to popularise science, the Centre for Mass Education in Science now teaches 25,000 rural Bangladeshi students how science and technology can become part of their lives.

A selection of papers delivered at a workshop organised jointly by SciDev.Net, the InterAcademy Panel, and held in Tobago, West Indies, on 26 - 28 February 2002.

David Dickson remembers the life of Anil Agarwal, a leading Indian environmental activist and founder of the Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment.

Katie Mantell finds out how subscriptions to online scientific journals are being offered at significantly reduced prices in developing countries, in response to concern that scientists in poorer nations are unable to afford access to scientific information.