eIFL.net and Bioline International have identified an opportunity for cooperation in order to advance the development of Open Access and in particular open access journals in developing and transitional countries. Joint activities will aim to encourage more publishers to make available their journals on an Open Access basis, and will attempt to encourage more libraries to use and to promote this valuable free source of peer-reviewed scientific information.

Bioline International (http://www.bioline.org.br/) is a not-for-profit initiative that aims to reduce the global scientific knowledge divide through the online distribution of peer-reviewed journals from developing countries. The platform now hosts over 70 journals from 16 countries. Bioline improves the visibility of research journals from the developing world through enhanced meta-data and document mark-up, indexing in major databases, and through the use of international standards that are compliant with other open access initiatives, thereby improving the usage and uptake of the publications. Over 4.2 million full texts were downloaded in 2008 and the number continues to rise.