Dear all I thought this may be of interest to you Cheers Declan
Nature launches web debate "Future e-access to the primary literature" The communication of research results impacts on everyone involved in science. Today, Nature launches an online debate on the most crucial and talked-about aspect of scientific publishing -- the impact of the web on the publication of original research. The debate is freely accessible via Nature's home page (http://www.nature.com) or directly at http://www.nature.com/nature/debates/e-access/index.html The site will debate the recent and prominent initiative by researchers to force publishers to release archived reports of original research into centralized, freely available and unrestricted databases. This initiative, known as 'The Public Library of Science' (PLS ), will be discussed from a range of perspectives, from the advocates of free access to those who worry about its potential negative impacts on science. But we have also commissioned articles that go beyond the PLS debate from, among others, experts in scientific information management and commerce. Reactions to the posted articles are welcome and a selection posted, following selection by moderators Tony Delamothe, Web Editor, British Medical Journal and Declan Butler, European correspondent, Nature. Declan Butler Today's set of papers includes views from: Ann Okerson, Associate University Librarian at Yale University Derk Haank, CEO, Elsevier Science Frank Gannon, Executive Director, European Molecular Biology Organization Ira Mellman, Editor, The Journal of Cell Biology, Yale University School of Medicine Edwin Sequeira, Jo McEntyre and David J. Lipman, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA Jo McEntyre and David J. Lipman, National Center for Biotechnology Information, National Library of Medicine, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, USA Les Grivell, Director, E-BioSci; a European archive initiative Martin Richardson, Publishing Director, Oxford University Press Robert D. Wells, President, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and Herbert Tabor, M.D. Editor, J. Biol. Chem The content will build up over the next few weeks; scheduled authors include: Amos Bairoch, cofounder of the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics and GeneBio (Geneva Bioinformatics SA). Andrew Odlyzko, AT&T Labs Dale Flecker, Associate Director for Planning and Systems, Harvard University Library Hans Roosendaal, Director Scientific Information, University of Twente, Dinkel Institute Jim Hendler, US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency John R. Inglis, Director of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press Jon Bosak, Sun Microsystems Martin Blume, Editor-in-Chief, American Physical Society journals Michael Keller, Publisher, HighWire Press Rick Luce, director, Research Library of Los Alamos National Laboratory Robert Campbell, Blackwell Science Stuart Weibel, OCLC Online Computer Library Center, Inc. Tom Sanville, Executive Director, Ohiolink