Re: J Am Med Inform Assoc Table of Contents for 1 November 2003; Vol. 10, No. 6

[Shaun Grannis]

From the Bates response:

"For open-source approaches, studies and reports in the peer-reviewed 
literature are /especially /important." (My emphasis)

Are studies evaluating open-source approaches more important 
("especially important") than those evaluating closed-source commercial 
products? Why should one favore studying systems whose source code is 
fully available, rather than trying to understand the hidden "features" 
(bugs) in closed-source systems that are found only through trial and 
error, and thus require additional testing ("studying")?

I am probably reading too much into a single line, but thought it worth 
noting.