This article discusses the medical journals back-files digitization project - an initiative to create a critical mass of digital content based on the back-files of a number of historically significant medical journals. All content is made freely available through the NIH life sciences repository, PubMed Central (PMC).
The project, however, is not limited to historical, archival content. All publishers that participate in this initiative agree to deposit current and future issues with the PMC archive, and make all research papers freely available within an embargo-defined period. As such, this project is in accord with the open access principles espoused by the project sponsors - the Wellcome Trust, the JISC, and the US National Library of Medicine.
This paper considers some of the value-added services this project has developed, and explores why the Wellcome Trust is supporting open and unrestricted access to the research literature and what it is doing to help realize its open access policy.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/13/2006 11:11:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
