Publishers for Development (PfD)

Advocating for ways of providing access that are affordable and sustainable for Southern partners, and providing forums to create common understanding of challenges, needs and priorities.

Publishers for Development (PfD) brings together stakeholders within the global research and publishing community to ensure that the needs of Southern partners are accounted for in Northern practices.

Through PfD we provide forums to create common understanding of challenges, needs and priorities, enabling partners to secure more affordable access/fair terms, and helping publishers to develop business practices which support development of Southern Research & Knowledge systems

Publishers for Development (PfD) was launched in 2008, initially as part of the PERI programme, and subsequently as part of INASP’s SRKS programme.

Activities

Principles of responsible engagement for publishers. INASP has developed a set of principles to guide and assist publishers who are committed to supporting development through providing on-going access to online research information resources.
Publishers for Development (PfD) conference and forum, bringing publishers together with Southern librarians, researchers and others involved in research information provision, access and uptake. Past conference themes have included: Working together to support research, Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals: the role of research literature and How can we work responsibly in developing countries?
Regular sharing of case studies, consortia news and partner stories demonstrating the impact of access and the needs of Southern research communities via newsletters and blogs

Research, Knowledge, and Development: Changing Systems Takes Time

In response to our piece on the Publishers for Development Conference and the Research4Life program, Jonathan Harle from INASP reached out to us to engage in a critical discussion around the challenges of addressing questions of power in scholarly communications.

Guest Post: INASP's Anne Powell - Availability Does Not Equal Access

A recent post in The Scholarly Kitchen highlighted the crucial link between access and discovery, and the clear conclusion that making information available is not sufficient by itself.

Local knowledge for local challenges

In an article originally published in Research Information, Siân Harris reflects on some of the stories from last week’s Publishers for Development conference, which brought together international scholarly publishers with librarians and researchers from Africa and south Asia.