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Scientists Demand Free Journal Access

Though Harvard University says Science Online offers "full and timely content," these cost-based decisions made by universities concern the leaders of the Public Library of Science.

Brown, at Stanford, said it is unlikely such library decisions will have any significant effect on the price of the most prestigious scientific journals, since scientist demand the peer-review process that these journals provide.

Kirschner said the only effective way to insure that scientists have inexpensive access to the most respected sources of information is through the Public Library of Science's campaign.

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"Because the scientists provide 99 percent of the raw materials that are actually involved in the journal publication process, they really do have a huge amount of power in the free market," Kirschner said. "The one thing they have lacked is the ability to act in a concerted way to make their wants heard and taken seriously."

The campaign seems to be provoking some response from the publishing world, Stanford Professor Patrick Brown said. And he says the scheduled boycott on publishing might not occur if journals continue to respond.

"We don't want to cripple the whole process, " Brown said. "We are now seeing some response and with these small concessions we are reconsidering what position we should take."

The Reaction [MAKE BF, MAKE BF!!!!]

Some journals see the rationale for free access to archives but do not want to be part of the fully-searchable web engine, which as of now would be run off of a U.S. government site through the National Library of Medicine.

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