This link has been bookmarked by 5 people . It was first bookmarked on 21 Jun 2008, by harry palmer.
This is something I feel strongly about...
i) Your tax money is paying for all of this research.
ii) The scientists themselves do almost all of the work in putting the paper together, including the refereeing (all at no cost to the journal.)
iii) With Latex, just about anyone can produce publication ready MS's that look professionally typeset. Scientists no longer require a publication house to typeset their papers.
iv) It is in the best interests of the scientists to publish their work in an open format such that anyone can download the PDF's for free. That gives the work the maximum possible exposure.
v) Some journals already have open access- e.g. The Brazilian Journal of Physics.
vi) The existing copyright limits are horrendous. A paper only becomes public property 70 years after the death of the authors. How does that benefit anyone?
vii) Why should (e.g.) a cancer patient be forced to fork out 45 dollars for a paper detailing the results of a clinical trial for a drug she's taking?
viii) Is it any wonder that the public is so ignorant of science, when they're denied access to the original source material used by all scientists?
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