Tuesday, April 13, 2004

Open Internet Access to Scientific Research Articles

The current issue of American Medical News, a newsletter of the AMA, includes an article on experiments with open access to scientific research papers. The Journal of the American Medical Association already has a policy of open access for articles over six months old. Others are now going further. A consortium of research scientists calling itself the Public Library of Science plans to publish under a plan of open internet access, with costs of publication and peer-review funded in part by the scientists who author the articles. Will it take off? We doubt that JAMA or Cell will be driven from the market anytime soon. But if this new publication model does gain some traction, it will be interesting to see how the courts respond to author-subsidized peer-review. Thanks to TVC Alert for the pointer.

posted by pn at 9:09 AM  

Fed. R. Evid. 702: If scientific, technical, or other specialized knowledge will assist the trier of fact to understand the evidence or to determine a fact in issue, a witness qualified as an expert by knowledge, skill, experience, training, or education, may testify thereto in the form of an opinion or otherwise, if (1) the testimony is based upon sufficient facts or data, (2) the testimony is the product of reliable principles and methods, and (3) the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case.