The partners of Research4Life announced at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2009 that a new research impact analysis has demonstrated a dramatic rise in research output by scientists in the developing world since 2002. Comparing absolute growth in published research before (1996 - 2002) and after (2002 - 2008) the advent of the Research4Life programmes, the analysis has revealed a 194 percent or 6.4-fold increase in articles published in peer reviewed journals.
Research4Life is the collective name given to HINARI, AGORA and OARE, the three public-private partnerships that offer health, agriculture and environmental research for free or at very low cost to developing countries. Key partners include WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale Universities, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers and Microsoft as the technology partner. Journal content is provided by over 150 publishers including Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell and Oxford University Press.
The analysis, conducted by Elsevier's Associate Director of Scientometrics & Market Analysis, Dr Andrew Plume, showed that absolute growth in research between 1996 - 2002 was 25 percent in non Research4Life countries (countries not eligible due to their GNI per capita); 22 percent in Band 1 countries (eligible countries with less than $1250 annual per capita income or GNI); and 30 percent in Band 2 countries (eligible countries with $1251 to $3500 GNI).
Five years on, between 2002 - 2008, the same figures were significantly higher at 67 percent, 145 percent and 194 percent respectively indicating 2.6-, 6.5- and 6.4-fold increases over the 1996-2002 growth. Dr. Plume used a database sourced from Thomson Reuters to count the appearance of each country in the author affiliations of indexed journal articles, and then grouped these countries by their Research4Life eligibility.
In addition, an in-depth look at three selected Band 1 countries (Nigeria, Kenya, and Tanzania) and one Band 2 country (Bulgaria) revealed a progression of article output from 1996 - 2008. By contrast, non Research4Life countries such as Japan showed steady and continuous growth over this period without a sharp change in output over the period analysed.
The results of the impact analysis were further illustrated by Research4Life's institutional growth findings announced in May 2009. OARE, the Online Access to Research in the Environment programme, has registered 1,500 institutions since its launch in 2006, an increase of nearly 700 percent. The Health Access to Research programme: HINARI has grown by 61 percent since 2006 so that researchers at 3,866 not-for-profit institutions in 108 countries now have access to over 6,300 medical and health journals. AGORA or Access to Global Online Research in Agriculture has increased registrants by 77 percent since 2006, providing researchers at 1,760 developing world institutions with access to 1,276 food, agriculture and related social sciences journals.
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