The initiative, known as AGORA (access to global online research in agriculture), will provide access, via an online web portal, to more than 400 scientific journals in food, nutrition, agriculture, as well as biological, environmental and social sciences. [CORDIS: News service]
Necessary indeed, but …
The decision to develop such a tool was taken in response to a demand for scientific literature in developing countries, which the FAO says has gone unfulfilled for many years. [CORDIS: News service]
… why is a tool needed? Here we have a ridiculous waste of money going on. The journal publishers charge for access by readers (rather then authors, who are the direct beneficiaries of the publishing process), which means that Universities in the developed world spend huge sums of money (ultimately passed on to the population at large in the form of taxes, or hidden in increased product costs) subscribing to those journals, and that no one in the developing world can have access at all. Then the UN FAO come along and spend a huge sum of money making these journals available to "students and researchers in qualifying not-for-profit institutions in eligible developing countries" [AGORA].
I don't know whether the actual access involves paying subscription charges, or whether the journal publishers provide this for free, but there is a huge cost involved in setting up the web portal which can control access and ensure that only those who are eligible can get in.
If these journals were open access, everyone in developing countries would have access, and no such expensive "tool" would need to be created simply for the purpose of controlling access.
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