The information gap between the developed and developing countries is widening. While those of us in the developed world suffer from information overload, the developing countries have bare library shelves.¹ For some years now it has been the policy of the BMJ Group to give gratis print subscriptions to the different specialist journals to applicants from countries in the developing world, which may have helped a little. However, in practice this has had its difficulties. Many developing countries have either poor or non-existent postal services and granting a print subscription can often be problematic and expensive—the marginal cost of sending the Journal of Clinical Pathology (JCP) to Africa is around £25 each year, and each volume is probably accessible to a limited number of individuals. Now that the Internet provides access to many journals online, we have the opportunity to narrow the information gap.

The British Medical Association (BMA) and the Association of Clinical Pathologists (ACP), as co-owning society, have decided to provide funds to create completely free access to the electronic edition of JCP to those from countries defined as “poor” using the World …