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        New Message Board Archives >> Medications, Treatments, Therapies 2003 >> Open Access to Scientific Research
        
(Message started by: tommyD on Aug 7^th, 2003, 2:27pm)

Title: Open Access to Scientific Research
Post by tommyD on Aug 7^th, 2003, 2:27pm

This is a piece from the New York Times:

Open Access to Scientific Research

A number of influential scientists have begun to argue that the cost of research publications has grown so large that it impedes the distribution of knowledge. Some subscriptions cost thousands of dollars per year, and those journals are usually available online only to subscribers. This looks less like dissemination than restriction, especially if it is measured against the potential access offered by the Internet. That is why a coalition led by Dr. Harold Varmus, the former director of the National Institutes of Health, is creating a new model, called the Public Library of Science.

Several years ago Dr. Varmus's group issued an open letter, signed by some 30,000 colleagues, calling on the publishers of scientific journals to make their archived research articles freely available online. Most journals declined, so they would not undercut the profitable business of selling expensive subscriptions to libraries. But there is a basic inequity when much of the research has been financed by public money.

The Public Library of Science plans to confront that inequity by establishing a new series of peer-reviewed journals that will be freely available on the Internet. The first ones, published this October, will be PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine. The aim is to create a freer flow of data about research and results. The journals will pay for themselves by charging a small fee to the organizations and institutions that support the research.

Most of us, admittedly, will not have much use for free access to new discoveries in, say, particle physics. But it is a different matter when it comes to medical research. Popular nostrums abound on the Web, but it can be very hard, if not impossible, to find the results of properly vetted, taxpayer-financed science — and in some cases it can be hard for your doctor to find them, too. The Public Library of Science could help change all that, creating open access to research. The publishers of scientific journals are naturally skeptical, but the real test will come in the marketplace of ideas. What will matter this fall, when the new journals make their debut, is how many scientists choose to publish in them rather than in the journals traditionally deemed the most prestigious in their disciplines.

http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org/

Title: Re: Open Access to Scientific Research
Post by HypnoticFreddy on Aug 7^th, 2003, 3:14pm

I am just curious. Are these publications going to be peer-reviewed? I am not quite sure from the website.
Also, on-line access to journal literature IS big business. I know. I am working in this field. It sounds like a good idea though.

-HypnoticFreddy