Nature is providing six months of free online access for some important articles on RNA interference. This temporary free access is sponsored by Qiagen, a company making biotech tools. (PS: Sponsored free access is a promising method of funding and should be explored. But why just six months? Does Nature really believe that the revenue it will receive from old articles will exceed the gain to science, and the journal itself, in making these articles freely available forever? Use the Qiagen money to pay for the first six months, when there may really be some lost revenue. But after that, when the revenue potential is insignificant, provide free access without a subsidy rather than revert to toll-access.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/04/2003 09:09:00 AM.
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.
