http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/17/science/17JOUR.html
Excerpt:
New Premise in Science: Get the Word Out Quickly, Online
By AMY HARMON
A group of prominent scientists is mounting an electronic challenge to the
leading scientific journals, accusing them of holding back the progress of
science by restricting online access to their articles so they can reap
higher profits.
Supported by a $9 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation,
the scientists say that this week they will announce the creation of two
peer-reviewed online journals on biology and medicine, with the goal of
cornering the best scientific papers and immediately depositing them in the
public domain.
By providing a highly visible alternative to what they view as an outmoded
system of distributing information, the founders hope science itself will be
transformed. The two journals are the first of what they envision as a vast
electronic library in which no one has to pay dues or seek permission to
read, copy or use the collective product of the world's academic research.
"The written record is the lifeblood of science," said Dr. Harold E. Varmus,
a Nobel laureate in medicine who is serving as the chairman of the new
nonprofit publisher. "Our ability to build on the old to discover the new is
all based on the way we disseminate our results."
By contrast, established journals like Science and Nature charge steep
annual subscription fees and bar access to their online editions to
nonsubscribers, although Science recently began providing free electronic
access to articles a year after publication.
The new publishing venture, Public Library of Science, is an outgrowth of
several years of friction between scientists and the journals over who
should control access to scientific literature in the electronic age. For
most scientists, who typically assign their copyright to the journals for no
compensation, the main goal is to distribute their work as widely as
possible.
Academic publishers argue that if they made the articles more widely
available they would lose the subscription revenue they need to ensure the
quality of the editorial process. Far from holding back science, they say,
the journals have played a crucial role in its advancement as a trusted
repository of significant discovery.
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