IOP Publishing and Egyptian Knowledge Bank partnership to provide access to all Egyptian researchers
10 Oct 2018 by Simon Davies
H.E Professor Dr Tarek Shawki, Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education (right) and Dr Olaf Ernst, IOP Publishing's Commercial Director, sign the agreement.
Researchers and readers in Egypt will be able to access all IOP Publishing’s (IOP) journals and ebooks, thanks to a new agreement between IOP and the Egyptian Knowledge Bank (EKB).
IOP and the EKB – Egypt’s online national library – have signed a three-year contract enabling the whole of Egypt, including its public and private universities, research institutions, and libraries.
The EKB was established to support the development of Egypt as a knowledge economy and is one of the world’s largest digital libraries. It has been licensing access to educational materials for all citizens within the boundaries of the country.
H.E Professor Dr Tarek Shawki, Egypt’s Minister of Education and Technical Education, is the President of the Egyptian Knowledge Bank Project. He said: “IOP Publishing is a lighthouse of quality in physics, so this agreement will be of great benefit to Egypt’s researchers, students, and all citizens with an interest in science.”
Mr Mahmoud Hussein, EKB Project Coordinator, said: “The EKB is an unprecedented attempt to spread the culture of knowledge and learning, and put a spotlight on the value of research. This agreement with IOP Publishing will play a valuable part in achieving that aim.”
Dr Olaf Ernst, commercial director at IOP Publishing, said: “We’re very pleased to have agreed this contract with the EKB.
“A core part of IOP Publishing’s mission is to help make relevant research discoverable and available when and where it is needed. So it is excellent to be able to make all our ebooks and journals – some of which have archives dating back to 1874 – available to all in Egypt who need them.”
The agreement between IOP and the EKB will last for three years and will enable readers in Egypt to access the 89 journals published by IOP and its partners, as well as its 286 ebooks.