Open access: unlimited Web based literature searching.

A nyone searching the scientific literature anywhere other than in a large university library soon realizes that most recent publications are available online, but at a price. Many publishers charge between $15 and $30 per article. This rapidly brings the cost of a literature search to several hundred dollars. These costs are borne mainly by researchers without university affiliations, particularly those from developing countries, while university based researchers, primarily, benefit from electronic database search facilities. Against this background, there are increasingly insistent demands for free, unlimited access to all scientific results. Research funding bodies and state bodies argue that, since research is financed with public money, its results and the publications in which they appear should be available to all citizens. This is the primary argument of the so-called open access movement. Numerous journals subscribe to this idea. Hence for example both the German and English version of Deutsches Ärzteblatt’s medical scientific articles are available cost-free. Publication in an open access journal also carries potential benefits for authors, relative to conventional, restricted access journals, who deny access to potentially interested parties. It is likely that open access publications are more widely read, with benefits to the reader, and the hope of easier accessibility and wider citation for the author. The following are some examples which appear to support this view.