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COVERAGE & ACCESS

New Online Medical Journal To Make Research Available to Public at No
Charge

 PLoS Medicine, a new online medical journal launched earlier this month,
provides the public with research articles available through the Internet
at no charge, the AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. The PLoS
Medicine's 11-member board of directors said distribution of research
articles would be unlimited, adding that they hope that developing
nations and scientists at small research colleges could benefit from
"medical research that otherwise would be unavailable without an
expensive subscription," according to the AP/Post-Intelligencer (Kertesz,
AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/27).

In lieu of subscriptions, the journal charges researchers $1,500 per
article to publish their findings (USA Today, 10/28). PloS Medicine
received financial support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation,
the Sandler Family Supporting Foundation and others (AP/Seattle
Post-Intelligencer, 10/27). Some publishers have said that the full cost
of producing an article costs from $4,000 to $6,000, adding that "PLoS
will require an endless infusion of philanthropic grants to stay afloat,"
the Wall Street Journal reports (Wysocki, Wall Street Journal, 10/28).
Vivian Siegel, PloS' executive director, said the journal will be
self-supporting within five years.

Harold Varmus, chair of the PLoS board, said the journal provides "health
care personnel, their patients, and the citizens who have paid for much
of the research with new findings from credible, peer-reviewed sources"
(AP/Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 10/27). PLoS launched an open-access
biology journal, PLoS Biology, in October 2003 (USA Today, 10/28).

Open Access Trend

The Journal on Thursday examined the debate over whether articles
published in scholarly journals, which are often based on publicly
financed research, should be widely available for on the Internet for no
charge. NIH is accepting public comment until Nov. 16 on a proposal to
make any research funded by NIH grant money available within six months
of publication in a journal on a public NIH-sponsored Web site. Patient
advocates back the proposal, arguing that "too often the latest
scientific findings are off-limits to the average citizen," while
publishers oppose the initiative, arguing that the proposed six-month
delay is not long enough, according to the Journal.

The technical and medical publishing industry generates about $10 million
annually from scientific and medical journals, and publishers have said
that they often make articles available at no cost within 12 to 24 months
of publication. Several publishers are scheduled to meet on Thursday with
NIH Director Elias Zerhouni to "urge him to proceed slowly on the
proposal," the Journal reports. "What we're not happy about is compulsory
open access," Eric Swanson, senior vice president at John Wiley & Sons,
said. Zerhouni said, "It's my hope that people will cool down" about the
issue (Wall Street Journal, 10/28).


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