# Sharing Knowledge with Developing Countries


While playing with the [University of Toronto](http://www.utoronto.ca)’s
[library pages](http://library.utoronto.ca), I did some random searches
and came across an article about [“Participation in the global knowledge
commons”](https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/retrieve/3874/chan_costa.pdf)
by Leslie Chan and Sely Costa. First of all, this is an example of how
digitalizing academic publishing, and making it accessible for free-text
searches makes knowledge more available (quite obvious, this piece has
not even been published, but even if it had, in say [Third World
Quarterly](http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/carfax/01436597.html), it is
not likely that I would have come over it.)

Most peer-reviewed journal articles are now archived online in huge
database repositories, which typically cost a lot to access (if you are
at a university, you’ll never even notice this, because your university
library probably has a site-wide license - however, they pay large
amounts for this privilege). This article discusses some attempts by the
[UN](http://www.un.org) ([WHO](http://www.who.int/en)) and the [Soros
Foundation](http://www.soros.org) to enable libraries and non-profit
organizations in poor countries to access these databases. It argues
that while these attempts are certainly laudable, the ideal solution
would be twofold. Firstly, moving towards public author archiving of all
published articles, making them available for no fee at all, and
secondly improving communications and information sharing between third
world nations (studies done in similar contexts, let’s say of poor
countries coping with AIDS epidemics, might be more useful then say
studies of expensive drug treatments that are unavailable in third world
countries).

It also cites the [Public Library of Science](http://www.plos.org), a
newly started organization that publishes open peer-reviewed journals in
both biology and medicine (more to come?), and which excited me a lot
when I heard about it. It probably differs a lot from field to field,
and journal to journal, but when working at [PRIO](http://www.prio.no),
I learnt that for the [Journal of Peace
Research](http://www.prio.no/page/Project_detail/Research_menu_right/9244/37834.html),
nobody except the publishers really made any money off it (the editor,
the peer-reviewers etc are all paid by their respective institutions),
so it would seem to make a lot of sense to make it available publically?

Stian