Title: Digital publishing and the new era of digital divide

Authors: Allam Ahmed

Addresses: SPRU – Science and Technology Policy Research, The Freeman Centre, University of Sussex, Brighton BN1 9QE, UK

Abstract: The scarcity of literature in educational institutions is a serious problem in different parts of the world, particularly in developing countries where there is a real need for better access to information. It is vitally important that the technological gap between developing and developed countries is narrowed, and scientific journals have a key role to play in ensuring that this takes place. This paper aims to assess and evaluate Digital Publishing (Open Access Publishing and Open Source Models) as a proposed solution to avoid restrictions on accessing scientific knowledge, particularly in the developing countries. More importantly, the paper outlines opportunities and challenges of open-access publishing for the developing countries. However, oftentimes there are mismatches between what the |donor| countries can reasonably offer and what the developing countries can implement.

Keywords: digital publishing; digital divide; open access publishing; open source; developing countries; information technology; communications; ICT; knowledge transfer; science; technology; globalisation; sustainable development; scientific journals.

DOI: 10.1504/IJLIC.2005.008096

International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 2005 Vol.2 No.4, pp.346 - 363

Published online: 16 Nov 2005 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article