Re: PR's 'pit bull' takes on open access: excerpts from article in Nature Magazine

From: Peter Banks <pbanks_at_BANKSPUB.COM>
Date: Tue, 30 Jan 2007 08:09:53 -0500

I don't disagree with anything you say. At the American Diabetes Diabetes,
we made Diabetes Care available freely available three months after
publication, and the most clinically significant papers available
immediately (as well as allowing authors to make postprints immediately
available upon acceptance). That system preserved our subscription and
advertising revenue, allowing us to invest in the kinds of education that
patients and professionals most desired.

I think this was a reasonable system for supporting both wide access to the
primary literature and the creation of sought=after interpretive literature.
Going for universal free access to published papers would have made the
system collapse. Yes, I cared about profits--because any net income
supported research, education, and information tailored for doctors and
patients.

The members of the DC Principles group, along with many other publishers,
have struck a reasonable compromise between free access and maintaining a
business model that supports other socially useful and important activities.


On 1/30/07 5:28 AM, "Smith Jane" <Jane.H.Smith_at_NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK> wrote:

>
> Heather wrote:
>
> Patients and their families can benefit from reading the research
> literature themselves, as is their right when they as taxpayers have
> paid for it.
>
>> Having worked for a major UK health charity, patients and their
> families do want more detailed information than provided in patient
> information booklets and it was not uncommon to be told we are graduates
> please direct us to science publications. Many found the basics of
> patient booklets too basic after the initial diagnosis. Not all
> patients, but enough. I do not see why those few must be denied.
>
> However, patients and families also benefit indirectly from public
> access, when their health care professionals, educational institutions
> training health professionals, and others (including politicians, public
> servants, journalists and freelance writers) have more access to the
> research literature.
>
>> Indeed I also found that many nursing staff & students had limited
> access to published articles/ time to go to their NHS libraries to
> access them. Access from home and online was something they wanted.
>
>> And Peter: Credit where it is due, thank you for being involved with
> making Diabetes Care etal more accessible online, I found it a very
> useful resource to help me answer patient questions on this condition
>
> Regards
>
> Jane H Smith
> SHERPA Services Development Officer
> University of Nottingham
>
> Phone: 0115 951 4341
> Fax: 0115 823 0549
>
> SHERPA - www.sherpa.ac.uk
>
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Peter Banks
Banks Publishing
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Received on Tue Jan 30 2007 - 13:26:06 GMT