As editors we want as many people to have access to NDT as possible. The last 18 months have seen a number of experimental initiatives to test the technical and logistical feasibility of providing free or greatly discounted online journal access to information-starved researchers in some of the world's poorest countries. These countries have economies whose weakness has meant that even the ability to feed, clothe and provide a basic elementary level of education for their populace has often proved an unattainable goal. Resources for the acquisition of the high-level research found in first-world journals are an impossible luxury. Yet denial of access to this research represents in many cases a denial of access to information which may provide a way out of the vicious circle of intellectual, economic and social deprivation.
There is a growing consensus in all sectors of the academic journal publishing world that we can and should do something positive to address these issues. If we do, the resulting short-term gains for researchers in the countries affected are obvious. Longer term, however, we all gain.
Oxford University Press (OUP), who publish NDT, have developed a 2-fold strategy to redress the information imbalance, in conjunction with the International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications (INASP) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). First, free online access is offered to any established not-for-profit educational institute in the world's 67 poorest countries: institutes just need to apply through INASP or WHO or direct to OUP. The list of countries has been created using criteria supplied by the WHO, World Bank and United Nations Development Programme, and is available through the NDT website subscriptions information (www.ndt.oupjournals.org). An additional 60 countries can apply for greatly discounted online access to all of OUP's journals online.
The ERAEDTA have embraced these developments within their own aims to encourage and to report advances in the field of clinical nephrology, dialysis, renal transplantation.