Michael B. Eisen, Patrick O. Brown, Harold E. Varmus, PLoS Medicine --A Medical Journal for the Internet Age, PLoS Medicine, October 19, 2004. Excerpt: "The Internet is awash with medical information....Go to any search engine and type in the name of a disease or drug, and you will be directed to hundreds of sites, ranging from the sound and useful to the quackish and dangerous. Google 'medical' and you get 85 million pages, 'drug,' 40 million, and 'health,' 230 million. But something is conspicuously missing. The most reliable medical information on the Internet --the contents of peer-reviewed medical journals-- is hidden from the public and most of the world's physicians. Although most medical journals are available online, their publishers limit access to those who choose, and can afford, to pay for access. This should not, and need not, be so....The established medical publishers have turned their back on the opportunity to make the latest and best medical information available to anyone with an Internet connection. With the launch of PLoS Medicine, we are embracing this opportunity....But we aim to be more than just an open-access alternative to established general medical journals. We are determined to make PLoS Medicine the best medical journal in the world by providing outstanding original research and new ideas; thought-provoking, educational, and imaginative features for readers; and the fastest, fairest, and most rigorous peer review for authors."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/18/2004 03:51:00 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.
