Elsevier has an important role to play in the developing world where information resources are scarce and scientific knowledge is critical to advancing economic development and human welfare. With this in mind, we have developed an “information philanthropy” approach to ensure that as the world’s largest science and health publisher, we allow access to the best research available to the countries that need it most.
Through several programs, including Research4Life, the Elsevier Foundation and many other key programs. Our commitment works to ensure that clinicians, researchers, and policymakers in resource-constrained countries have access to the information they need to address challenges in health, nutrition, agriculture, the environment and economic development in the developing world.
Research4Life
The central element in Elsevier’s information philanthropy program is Research4Life – a partnership of United Nations agencies, leading universities and publishers for three programs – HINARI, AGORA and OARE – that make journal articles available for free or at very low cost to institutions in developing coutnries. Elsevier is a founding partner and the leading contributor of content.
Questions about information philanthropy? Contact Elsevier Corporate Relations.
Elsevier is one of the founding health publishers of HINARI Access to Research Initiative, providing online access since 2001 to the major journals of the biomedical and social science fields, without charge, to public institutions in developing countries.
Elsevier is the largest contributor and provides 25% of the 6,200 HINARI journal titles.
3,475 institutions in 108 countries participating
In 2007, 1.2 million downloads from Elsevier journals, representing 35% of the over 4 million total HINARI downloads.
HINARI represents the 8th largest consortium in ScienceDirect.
The Lancet ranks as the most downloaded Elsevier title.
In 2003, the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization established AGORA (Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture) – providing access to high quality information in agriculture and related fields.
1705 institutions in 95 countires, 46 publishers and 1278 core journals involved. Of these journals, 30% are from Elsevier.
From 2006 to 2007, full-text downloads increased by 52%, logging between 15,000 and 20,000 per month on ScienceDirect.
OARE (Online Access to Research in the Environment), was launched in 2006 and managed by UNEP and Yale University in association with the International Association of Science, Technical and Medical Publishers (STM), 35 leading science and technology publishers and 100 of the world’s most prestigious scientific societies, associations, and foundations.
Provides access to 1,300 institutions in 108 countries to over 2,800 peer-reviewed journals in the environmental sciences from 60 publishers.
1,175 Elsevier journals are accessible via the program.
Downloads from Elsevier journals totaled 58,656 in 2007.
Elsevier MLA Grant
In 2007, an Elsevier grant of $80,000 and in 2008, an additional Elsevier Foundation grant of $30,000 enabled the Medical Library Association’s new Librarians Without Borders program to sponsor Lenny Rhine, University of Florida Librarian Emeritus, to stage eight onsite workshops and one distance learning course. Read the June/July 2007 Research Information feature to learn more.
Book Aid International
Through partnership with Book Aid International, Elsevier sponsors library growth in developing countries by donating surplus stock and creating additional donation-sponsorship programs.
Founded in 1954; 17 nations have benefited from Book Aid programs
Reed Elsevier has donated over USD $200,000 to Book Aid; 10% of the total 2007 Book Aid book donations.
Over 50,000 books in 2007 and 500,000 over the past 5 yeasrs came from RE.
Social Science Library
Founded in 2007, Tufts University’s Global Development and Environment Institute is creating the Social Science Library: Frontier Thinking in Sustainable Development and Human Well-Being (SSL). This new Celectronic scholarly resource will contain over 4,000 carefully selected and organized journal articles and book chapters distributed free of charge to 5,000 university libraries in 137 developing countries. Elsevier is one of 341 publishers contributing 99 journals to the CD-ROM.
TEEAL
In 1998, Elsevier was one of the early participants in TEEAL, The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library – a dedicated CD-ROM library with 140 top scientific journals in the field of agriculture.
International Council of Nurses Mobile Library
Through ICN/MSD (Merck Sharp & Dohme) mobile library, Elsevier delivers up-to-date health information to nursing professionals working in remote areas of developing countries.
PatientINFORM
Providing patients and their caregivers with online access to up-to-date, reliable research for specific diseases, PatientINFORMis a collaboration between the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association, the American Heart Association, scholarly and medical publishers, including Elsevier, medical societies, and information professionals.
Home | Elsevier Websites | Privacy Policy | Terms and Conditions | Feedback | Site Map | A Reed Elsevier Company