'Open Access'
Medical Journal Provides New Model for Publishing Original, Peer-Reviewed
Research; PLoS Medicine Launched on Internet This Week
SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)---- Free Online Journal Answers Call of
Congress, NIH, Nobel Laureates for Increased Access to Biomedical Research
A new general medical journal launched this week with a non-traditional
publishing model is the latest top-tier venue for publishing important,
peer-reviewed biomedical research, and is being called the first major,
international journal to be introduced in more than 70 years. Unlike most
medical journals which are available only through costly subscriptions, PLoS
Medicine is available free of charge and accessible to everyone through the
Internet, at plosmedicine.org. PLoS Medicine is published by the Public
Library of Science (PLoS), a coalition of researchers and physicians founded
in 2000 by Nobel Prize winner and former National Institutes of Health
Director Harold Varmus, M.D.
Typically, the world's most credible medical research is published in
journals that are almost exclusively available to an elite audience that can
afford to pay subscriptions that can cost thousands of dollars a year. PLoS
Medicine's introduction is being hailed by thousands of people who support
open access to medical research, many of whom have begun an international
movement for free access to medical research.
"The traditional model of publishing biomedical research fails to take
advantage of technological advances that make the scientific literature more
useful for scientists, physicians, and the general public in both
economically advanced and developing countries," said Varmus, now president
and chief executive officer of Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.
"Journals such as PLoS Medicine, available to everyone via the Internet and
public digital libraries, provide health care personnel, their patients, and
the citizens who have paid for much of the research with new findings from
credible, peer-reviewed sources."
PLoS Medicine's introduction is especially timely, with many experts saying
that medical journals must recognize that taxpayers fund much of the
research they're publishing and acknowledge that consumers should have
access to it at no charge. The U.S. Congress has publicly encouraged
increased access to peer-reviewed medical journals, particularly if the
research was conducted with government funds. Twenty-five Nobel Prize
winners echoed the request. In August, the National Institutes of Health
unveiled a proposal to require journal articles that use NIH-funded research
to be publicly available. NIH provides more than $25 billion a year to pay
for scientific and medical research conducted at public and private
institutions throughout the country.
PLoS Medicine's peer-review process is designed to be as rigorous as the
best-known medical journals, and uniquely collaborative, with nearly 100
experts from 28 countries on all five continents involved in the
decision-making process. The editorial staff has extensive experience
producing scientific research publications, including experience with The
Lancet, Nature, Journal of Clinical Investigation, British Medical Journal,
and others.
Editors say they are consciously creating a journal with global medical
relevance. According to the World Health Organization, only 10 percent of
medical research focuses on disease and conditions that account for 90
percent of global health problems. On top of this, the results of the
research that focuses on global health issues are often inaccessible to the
majority of health care providers who need it most in other parts of the
world.
The journal's inaugural issue features peer-reviewed research articles on
the global burden of disease, how the immune system is altered by smoking,
fluid depletion in children with malaria, how HIV drugs affect blood lipids,
and a surprising trigger for celiac disease. In addition to the research
papers, PLoS Medicine contains a provocative section for essays,
commentaries and debates. In the first issue, topics include domestic
violence, palliative care in the world's poorest countries, women's
reproductive rights, and tackling Africa's AIDS epidemic.
PLoS Medicine is the result of a carefully crafted, solid business model
that other journals can follow. Medical and scientific publishing is an
industry with revenues exceeding $10 billion per year. The journal's
expenses are recovered by imposing a modest charge of $1,500 to be recovered
from the research funding. These one-time charges allow PLoS to make all
research freely available for viewing and downloading from the moment of
publication.
"There's growing recognition by government and private research institutions
that publication of research is the last step in the scientific process. We
believe funding can be generated at the front end by the organizations that
sponsor the work, rather than at the back end through ever increasing
subscription rates," said PLoS Executive Director Vivian Siegel.
"Independent economic evaluations support open access as a viable publishing
model. PLoS expects to achieve sustainability within five years through a
comprehensive publishing plan."
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of
scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and
medical research a public resource. PLoS publishes open-access journals of
original peer-reviewed research, including PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine,
which are available at no cost to anyone in the world with a connection to
the Internet. More information can be found at www.plos.org and
www.plosmedicine.org.
Public Library of Science Jennifer Cobb, 202-745-5054
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