A new research impact analysis has demonstrated a dramatic rise in research output by scientists in the developing world since 2002, the partners of Research4Life announced today at the World Conference of Science Journalists 2009.

By comparing absolute growth in published research before (1996 – 2002) and after (2002 - 2008) the advent of the Research4Life programmes, the analysis has revealed a 194% or 6.4-fold increase in articles published in peer reviewed journals.

Research4Life is the collective name given to HINARI, AGORA and OARE, the three public-private partnerships that offer health, agriculture and environmental research for free or at very low cost to developing countries. Key partners include WHO, FAO, UNEP, Cornell and Yale Universities, the International Association of Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishers and Microsoft as the technology partner. Over 150 publishers, among them Elsevier, Springer, Wiley-Blackwell and Oxford University Press provide the journal content.

The analysis, conducted by Elsevier's Associate Director of Scientometrics & Market Analysis, Dr Andrew Plume, showed that absolute growth in research between 1996 - 2002 was 25% in non Research4Life countries (countries not eligible due to their GNI per capita), 22% in Band 1 countries (eligible countries with less than $1250 annual per capita income or GNI) and 30% in Band 2 countries (eligible countries with $1251 to $3500 GNI). Five years on, between 2002 - 2008, the same figures are dramatically higher at 67%, 145% and 194% respectively indicating 2.6-, 6.5- and 6.4-fold increases over the 1996-2002 growth. Dr Plume used a database sourced from Thomson Reuters to count the appearance of each country in the author affiliations of indexed journal articles, and then grouped these countries by their Research4Life eligibility.