The American Institute for Health Education (AIHE) is a non-profit corporation whose mission is to put "medical research articles into the hands of patients and their families." AIHE will provide citations by email or full-text photocopies by snail mail. Clients with access to a good research library --or a lode of OA literature-- might only want citations; others might want full-text. AIHE has some topics already prepared in its catalog and will research others on request. When clients want full-text photocopies, AIHE obtains permission from the copyright holder and pays any required fees. The service is not free, but is offered on a non-profit basis with discounts for "patients in need". (PS: I like the way AIHE mitigates access problems today, before OA is widespread, and can provide valuable research assistance, without changing business models, even in the age of abundant OA.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/26/2004 04:35:00 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.
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.
