Posts tagged: OA in the Developing World

November open access highlights: UKPMC becomes Europe PMC

Bailey Fallon on December 3, 2012 at 11:25 am - 0 Comments

Last month began with UK PubMed Central (UKPMC) rebranding itself as Europe PubMed Central (Europe PMC), reflecting a growing commitment from European life sciences research funders to make their research freely available. UKPMC was originally launched in January 2007 as a mirror of the US National Institute of Health’s PubMed Central, but has diversified since then. In July, the European Research Council became the third European funder to join UKPMC, leading to the decision for the service to rebrand itself as Europe PMC.

Also last month, the Berlin Open Access Conference was held in Stellenbosch, South Africa. The meeting takes place annually with the aim of supporting continued adoption of the principles outlined in the Berlin Declaration. This year …

Open Notebook Science and Malaria: Chemists Without Borders presentation

Bryan Vickery on August 31, 2007 at 11:24 am - 0 Comments

Chemists Without Borders is featuring a talk by Drexel University’s Jean-Claude Bradley on Open Notebook Science and Malaria, Thursday, September 6, 2007 at 5pm British Summer Time (if you’re as useless as me, look up the local time).

Jean-Claude Bradley is an Associate Professor of Chemistry and E-Learning Coordinator for the College of Arts and Sciences at Drexel University. He leads the UsefulChem project, an initiative started in the summer of 2005 to make the scientific process as transparent as possible by publishing all research work in real time to a collection of public blogs, wikis and other web pages. Contributors to UsefulChem include Chemistry Central Journal editorial board members Jeremy Frey and Mat Todd.

The term …

A chance meeting spurs Green Chemistry initiatives in Africa

Bryan Vickery on July 10, 2007 at 2:55 am - 2 Comments

A recent article in Science (Subscription required) on collaborations between scientists in developed countries and African colleagues highlights how Green Chemistry has caught the imagination of Ethiopian chemists.

A chance meeting between Professor Martyn Poliakoff (Nottingham University) and Nigist Asfaw (Addis Ababa University) in 2003 has led to a fruitful collaboration and help in obtaining equipment. The work has allowed the groups to look at the use of plants indigenous to Ethiopia as a source of chemicals, and energy intensive drying processes can be carried out by utlising the sun – an abundant source at no cost.

The Royal Society of Chemistry, in 2006, launched its Archive for Africa with Dr Simon Campbell, RSC President, saying "We …