The six publishers of about 1500 of the world's leading medical journals have agreed to provide online access to their journals free or almost free to developing country institutions. At a press conference in London on 9 July, the publishers said the agreement, which was facilitated by WHO with support from the BMJ Publishing Group and the Soros Foundations Network, would take effect from January next year and would benefit at least 600 institutions — universities, medical schools, research institutions, nursing schools — in about 100 developing countries. The six publishers are Blackwell, Elsevier Science, Harcourt Worldwide STM Group, John Wiley, Springer Verlag, and Wolters[...]