David Rothman has written a critical response to Bernadine Healy's article in USNews. Excerpt: "So what's her solution to avoid tossing 'the current system overboard in a medical Boston Tea Party'? Pretty Tory-like, if you ask me. She just steers people to the PubMed search engine of the National Library of Medicine at NIH. Then, if the information is overpriced, you're supposed to beg the researchers for the articles. Oh, come on, Doctor. Do you really think that average patients or family members always have both the time and energy to churn out oodles of emails to research questions that may stump even their physicians? Or that researchers and their clerical help are delighted to drop what they're doing to respond to patient requests? Moreover, isn't it possible that with immediate access to the articles involved, someone with cancer or MS could quickly follow leads in one place to go to more complete and relevant information elsewhere--especially if a coherent linking system exists?"
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/04/2003 09:38:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
