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

From: Michael Eisen <mbeisen_at_LBL.GOV>
Date: Wed, 31 Jan 2007 12:56:40 -0800

Chris-
I have read this report carefully, and I come to several very different
conclusions.

The fact that 40% of researchers (or 33% of immunologists and
microbiologists) report periodic or systematic difficulty gaining access
to the journals they need is shockingly bad, not good. This means that
fully one in three practicing scientists' work is being inhibited - in
their own minds by limited journal access.

This is particularly troubling if you look later in the report when they
find that one of the features that defines "high research producers" is
that they report fewer problems gaining access to the articles they need.

Thus, the study reports not only that a substantial fraction of
researchers have limited access to the literature in their field, but
that this limitation inhibits their research production. 

-Mike

Michael Eisen
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
UC Berkeley
Received on Wed Jan 31 2007 - 21:56:16 GMT