News Release 

International Association of STM Publishers and UN World Intellectual Property Organization 
launch “Access to Research for Development and Innovation” (ARDI)

DEVELOPING WORLD PATENT OFFICES RECEIVE ACCESS TO 150 CORE TECHNICAL 
PUBLICATIONS

OXFORD/UK – 23 July 2009 -- STM (International Association of Scientific, Technical & 
Medical Publishers) today announced a partnership with WIPO (UN World Intellectual 
Property Organization) to launch ARDI (Access to Research for Development and Innovation) 
providing access to a range of core research technical journals and other serial publications 
to patent offices in more than 100 developing countries, including all the 50 Least Developed 
Countries. ARDI has the support of the International Publishers Association.

Access will be free to patent offices in the 50 Least Developed Countries and will be at a very 
low cost to patent offices in 57 other developing countries. The patent offices and some 
approved research and academic institutions will be given direct access to the full content on 
the publishers’ web sites. The programme will go live by the end of the year.

Through Access to Research for Development and Innovation (ARDI), STM and WIPO are 
increasing resources available to patent offices in some of the poorest countries in the world 
where encouraging local innovation is a key element in the development of national 
economies. The 150 technical publications on a core list compiled by WIPO are published by 
a large number of international publishers: commercial, not for profit, scientific, and 
professional. 

Initially, selected publications from the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, the American Institute of Physics, Elsevier, the National Academy of Sciences, 
Nature Publishing Group, Oxford University Press, Sage, Springer Science + Business Media 
and Wiley-Blackwell will be available. As other publishers join the programme, more journals 
and magazines will be available.

ARDI will run at least for the time span of the UN’s Millennium Development Goals (2015)

“STM member publishers are pleased to work with WIPO to increase resources available to 
patent offices in more than 100 countries. The new ARDI programme provides free or very 
low cost access to a core group of publications. ARDI fits well with “Research4Life”, three 
successful UN agency sponsored programmes providing similar access to original research in 
health, agriculture and environmental sciences. Jayne Marks, Chair, International Association 
of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers, Vice President & Editorial Director, Sage 
Publications

“The Institute of Physics is pleased to take part in this WIPO programme to accelerate 
technical development in the Majority World through access to our journal Measurement 
Science and Technology,” said Jerry Cowhig, Managing Director of IOP Publishing

“WIPO is extremely pleased to launch the ARDI programme, a new public-private 
partnership with major global scientific and technical publishers and with the support of our 
sister UN agencies WHO, FAO and UNEP, as well as the International Association of Scientific, 
Technical & Medical Publishers. Access to the knowledge contained in scientific and technical 
literature is critical to the innovation process. This complements the valuable access to 
technical information contained in patent documents, which WIPO’s Patentscope® search 
service already provides. Such practical programs which enable developing and least 
developed countries to access and exploit such information effectively are an important 
priority for WIPO.” Mr. Francis Gurry, Director General, WIPO

END

The International Association of Scientific, Technical & Medical Publishers (STM) is a global 
trade association with approximately 100 member publishing organisations, both large and 
small, and for-profit and not-for-profit, collectively responsible for about 60% of the global 
output of research articles each year. STM’s mission is assisting publishers and their authors 
with their activities by disseminating results of STM research, assisting national and 
international organisations and industries to improve electronic dissemination of STM 
information, and working with international and national publishers associations and other 
governmental and professional bodies, concerned with these tasks. www.stm-assoc.org


For more information, please contact:
Maurice Long at [log in to unmask]     +44 7798 837129

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