At the beginning of this year, a report from the World Health Organization (WHO) highlighted the potential benefits for the developed world in giving more aid to developing countries. The scale of increased aid that was recommended was big, according to economist Jeffrey Sachs and his committee, but so were the potential benefits (see Nature 415, 1; 2002).

Making scientific and medical journals available cheaply or at zero cost was just one component of Sachs' wish-list. To its credit, the WHO was able to begin to fulfil that hope with a scheme that it launched in January, ponderously entitled the Health Internetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI). In this scheme, publishers collaborate with the WHO's Health Internetwork (see http://www.healthinternetwork.net), which acts as an online gateway and validator for libraries, 490 of which have been identified by the WHO. Publishers make their information freely available from their own resources, without payment from third parties.

At present, free access through HINARI is provided to most of the 106 countries that fall below a threshold of having an annual gross national product per head of US$1,000. From next year it is intended that journals will also be available at greatly reduced prices to the 39 countries whose gross national product per head falls between $1,000 and $3,000.

From 24 May, Nature and all other journals published by the Nature Publishing Group will become available through the HINARI scheme. That, coupled with the SciDev.Net free-access website that was spun off from Nature last year (see http://www.scidev.net), is one step towards the goals outlined by Sachs' committee.

In practice, the HINARI scheme has encountered some teething difficulties but, according to those in charge, it now works effectively. The biggest obstacle to access, they say, comes from “poor and extremely expensive connectivity”. Telecommunication providers and governments, please note.