SciELO - Scientific Electronic Library Online is a model for cooperative electronic publishing of scientific journals on the Internet. Especially conceived to meet the scientific communication needs of developing countries, particularly Latin America and the Caribbean countries, it provides an efficient way to assure universal visibility and accessibility to their scientific literature, contributing to overcome the phenomena known as "lost science".

A pilot project, involving 10 Brazilian journals from different subject areas, was successfully carried out from March 1997 to May 1998, aimed at the development and evaluation of an adequate methodology for electronic publishing on the Internet. From June 1998, the project begins to operate regularly, incorporating progressively new journal titles and expanding its operation to other countries.