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Bioline International is a not-for-profit platform that aggregates peer-reviewed, open-access bioscience journals published in developing countries. Launched in 1993, it is hosted by the University of Toronto Scarborough Library, and its website carries a notice, dated August 1, 2025, that it is no longer being updated.
Name collisions: “Bioline” is also the name of unrelated organisations, including a molecular-biology reagents company, an agricultural biological-protection company and a biopharma company. This page covers only Bioline International, the scholarly publishing platform.
What Bioline International is
Bioline International describes itself as having pioneered open access to peer-reviewed bioscience journals published in developing countries. The University of Toronto’s repository describes it as a not-for-profit digital platform for peer-reviewed, open-access bioscience journals. It is an aggregator, not a publisher: the journals it hosts remain the work of their own editors and publishers, which makes it a different kind of service from an open access journal itself.
It began as a partnership between the Electronic Publishing Trust for Development (UK) and CRIA in Campinas, Brazil. In early 2000 the University of Toronto Scarborough (UTSC) took over that role, with support from the UTSC Library.
Who runs it and what it covers
The University of Toronto repository record says Bioline is directed by Leslie Chan, a UTSC senior lecturer, with the UTSC Library coordinating and CRIA in Brazil handling server hosting and administration on a volunteer basis. The Bioline site says the database is hosted by the UTSC Library and that its legacy is supported by the UTSC Digital Scholarship Unit.
Journals were hosted from 16 countries: Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Venezuela. The site notes that some journals are active while others have merged or ceased, and that their backfiles remain accessible. The repository record lists the subject areas as public health, international development, tropical medicine, food and nutritional security, and biodiversity.
Its stated goals are to give publishers with limited resources free hosting, to lower access barriers, to raise the visibility of Global South publications, and to act as an open-access data provider that external services can harvest and index. For the wider context, see Global-South publishing.
Current status and where the content sits
As checked on 2026-10-29, the Bioline site states that it is no longer being updated. The notice is dated August 1, 2025 and points to a new address on the University of Toronto Scarborough digital collections site.
The content is split. The University of Toronto repository community holds contributor journal articles from 2007 onwards, while earlier articles are in the separate Bioline International Legacy Collection.
How to find its journals
Use the notice on the Bioline site to reach the current location of the collection, and the University of Toronto repository community for articles from 2007 onwards. For earlier material, look in the Legacy Collection named above. Because Bioline aggregates rather than publishes, the journal that issued an article is the source to name when you cite it.
Strengths and limits
- Strength: free hosting for journals from publishers with limited resources, and open access to what it hosts (stated goals on the Bioline site).
- Strength: built to be harvested and indexed by external services.
- Limit: the website is no longer being updated (notice dated August 1, 2025).
- Limit: some hosted journals have merged or ceased, so a journal’s backfile may be all that remains.
- Limit: the content is split between the 2007-onwards community and the Legacy Collection.
Alternatives
| Service | What its own pages say |
|---|---|
| Bioline International | Aggregates open-access bioscience journals from developing countries; hosted by the UTSC Library; site no longer updated. |
| DOAJ | Describes itself as an index of open access journals from around the world, run and managed by the DOAJ Foundation, a non-profit Danish foundation. It aims to raise the profile and use of peer-reviewed open access journals regardless of discipline, geography or language. See DOAJ. |
| AJOL | African Journals Online is a registered non-profit company that lists journals by category, country and alphabetical order. See the AJOL guide. |
For how indexing differs across services, see journal indexing in DOAJ, Scopus and Web of Science. Redalyc is another regional system, described in Redalyc.
FAQ
Is Bioline the same as the Bioline reagents company?
No. Bioline International is a scholarly open-access platform. Other organisations share the name, including a reagents company, an agricultural company and a biopharma company, and they are separate from it.
Is Bioline International still updated?
The Bioline site states that it is no longer being updated, in a notice dated August 1, 2025 (checked 2026-10-29). Backfiles of hosted journals remain accessible.
Is Bioline International a publisher?
No. The University of Toronto repository describes it as an aggregator of journals, not a publisher.
Which countries’ journals did it host?
Sixteen: Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Malawi, Malaysia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Venezuela.
Sources
- Bioline International, https://bioline.cria.org.br/, checked 2026-10-29.
- University of Toronto Scholaris, Bioline International community, https://utoronto.scholaris.ca/communities/d051c37d-092e-4587-8643-d66e087b5ccf, checked 2026-10-29.
- DOAJ, https://doaj.org/about/, checked 2026-10-29.
- African Journals Online, https://www.ajol.info/index.php/ajol/about, checked 2026-10-29.
