PLoS has issued a press release to announce the launch of PLoS Medicine. Excerpt: "A new general medical journal launched this week with a non-traditional publishing model is the latest top-tier venue for publishing important, peer-reviewed biomedical research, and is being called the first major, international journal to be introduced in more than 70 years. Unlike most medical journals which are available only through costly subscriptions, PLoS Medicine is available free of charge and accessible to everyone through the Internet, at plosmedicine.org. PLoS Medicine is published by the Public Library of Science (PLoS), a coalition of researchers and physicians founded in 2000 by Nobel Prize winner and former National Institutes of Health Director Harold Varmus, M.D. Typically, the world's most credible medical research is published in journals that are almost exclusively available to an elite audience that can afford to pay subscriptions that can cost thousands of dollars a year. PLoS Medicine's introduction is being hailed by thousands of people who support open access to medical research, many of whom have begun an international movement for free access to medical research....'There's growing recognition by government and private research institutions that publication of research is the last step in the scientific process. We believe funding can be generated at the front end by the organizations that sponsor the work, rather than at the back end through ever increasing subscription rates,' said PLoS Executive Director Vivian Siegel. 'Independent economic evaluations support open access as a viable publishing model. PLoS expects to achieve sustainability within five years through a comprehensive publishing plan.' "
Posted by
Peter Suber at 10/19/2004 01:57:00 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.
