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kaisernetwork.org Daily Reports. http://www.kaisernetwork.org/daily_reports/rep_index.cfm?DR_ID=26468 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). --------------------------- Please come and visit our site for future daily reports, or sign up for our Email-Alert mailing list to automatically receive future reports at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/email Daily Health Policy report http://www.kaisernetwork.org/healthpolicyreport Daily HIV/AIDS Report http://www.kaisernetwork.org/HIVAIDSreport Daily Reproductive Health Report http://www.kaisernetwork.org/reproductivehealthreport -- Kaisernetwork.org, is a free service of the Kaiser Family Foundation [log in to unmask] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn