PLoS Medicine launches today. An online press release online, however, giving yesterday as the launch date, seems to be both misdated and prematurely released. Here's an excerpt, however, unaffected by the dating problem: "PLoS Medicine [is] the most significant international general medicine journal to emerge in over 70 years....PLoS Medicine represents a wind-change in scientific publishing, as it is an 'open access' publication, available freely to all without a subscription charge. The Wellcome Trust and the publisher, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) share a mission to promote open, unrestricted access to scientific and medical research....The inaugural issue, now available on the web and in print, features peer-reviewed research articles on topics as diverse as the global burden of disease and cellular changes in smoking-related lung disease, written by highly-respected clinicians. The journal also contains exciting debates on controversial issues, commissioned expert perspectives on published studies, and summaries of research for non-specialist physicians and lay summaries for patients. 'The promise of free, online primary research articles has recently made extraordinary progress in the UK's House of Commons, the US Congress and National Institutes of Health, and research institutions around the world, including the Wellcome Trust,' states Dr. Harold E. Varmus, Nobel Laureate, former National Institutes of Health Director, and a co-founder of PLoS. 'PLoS Medicine intends to be among the world’s premier general medicine journals, publishing important, peer-reviewed original discoveries freely available to all.' "
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/18/2004 07:17:00 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.
