 Access to science and innovation in the developing worldAlexander Cuntz, Frank Mueller-Langer, Alessio Muscarnera, Prince C. Oguguo and Marc Scheufen Research Policy, 2025, vol. 54, issue 3 Abstract: We examine the implications of lowering barriers to access to scientific publications for science and innovation in developing countries. Specifically, we investigate whether and how free or low-cost online access to scientific publications through the UN-led Access to Research for Health (Hinari) Programme leads to more scientific publications and clinical trials of authors affiliated with research institutions in developing countries. We find that free or reduced-fee access to health science literature increases the scientific publication output and clinical trial output of institutions in developing countries by about 41% and 21%, respectively. We also investigate the Hinari effect on scientific input, as measured by backward citations. Our results indicate that – while Hinari-related papers account for about 9% in total references on average – Hinari increases the average number of Hinari-related articles in total references by about 1 percentage point. Keywords: Science; Access; Innovation; Clinical trials; Development; Health (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:54:y:2025:i:3:s0048733324002026 DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2024.105153 Access Statistics for this article Research Policy is currently edited by M. Bell, B. Martin, W.E. Steinmueller, A. Arora, M. Callon, M. Kenney, S. Kuhlmann, Keun Lee and F. Murray More articles in Research Policy from Elsevier |
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