BioMed Central agreed the membership with the Denmark's Electronic Research Library (DEF) - a co-operation between the Danish research libraries under the Ministry of Science, Technology and Development and the Ministry of Culture.
Bo Öhrström, DEF co-ordinator and deputy director of the Danish National Library Authority, explained why DEF took the decision, "Open Access publications help disseminate research but also represent a completely new development in journal publishing. A national agreement like this benefits all scholars and research institutions in Denmark, including smaller research projects in growth areas."
Natasha Robshaw, Head of Marketing and Sales at BioMed Central, said: "We applaud Denmark's Electronic Research Library for making this important step, and are really excited that three of the four Scandinavian countries have now become BioMed Central members. This will have a huge effect on awareness of Open Access, and its many benefits, in this part of Europe. We hope that Sweden will join its neighbors making a national commitment to Open Access. Sweden has been an early proponent of Open Access- Lund University was the first institution to become a BioMed Central member."
Scandinavia is now leading the world in its commitment to Open Access. Denmark's decision follows an announcement last month that Norway has agreed a national membership with BioMed Central. In May 2004, Finland became the first entire country to sign up for BioMed Central membership for all of its 25000 publicly funded researchers.