Free up medical research, an editorial in the September 9 Orlando Sentinel (free registration required). Excerpt: "Americans deserve access to information on medical research they support with taxes. Happily, the government's top research agency proposes to provide it....[Because of high journal prices] most people's knowledge of medical research...comes only through brief descriptions in the news. For those who have a keen interest in a particular disease or drug, that just isn't enough. Editors of medical journals are fighting the open access for fear that they will lose subscribers. Their concerns deserve a hearing because their process of allowing medical peers to review the research before publication performs a public service. NIH Director Elias Zerhouni's compromise is to delay its Web publication of the articles for six months after the final manuscript is accepted by the journals. This seems reasonable. The agency will accept public comment on its open-access proposal for 60 days....The potential public benefit is so great that the proposal merits adoption. If only the Food and Drug Administration had the same attitude!"
Update. On September 10, the Fort-Wayne News Sentinel seconded this editorial by reprinting it.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/09/2004 08:44:00 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.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
