Information Needed to Treat Put Beyond Physicians' Reach: Free Online Access to Medical Journal Articles Must Be the Norm

Free online access to medical journal articles must be the norm

...In our outdated system of disseminating research papers, the information vital to human medicine sits locked behind paywalls. If you've ever tried to open the full text of a journal article, you've likely faced a prompt demanding $15-$32 per article reader fee. Two of the largest scholarly publishers, Elsevier and the American Publishing Association, have invested untold sums to push for industry-friendly legislation that would keep this lifesaving information from the hands of the physicians charged with caring for our country's injured and ill.

Yet, in 2008, physicians and the American people won a great victory. Congress moved to allow the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy to provide free access to the results of the approximately 90,000 governmentally funded studies published each year. This policy provides access to NIH-funded studies within one year of publication, providing at least reasonably new information upon which physicians can make their clinical decisions. However, not all scientific information is publicly accessible — and what is available has been the target of a recent industry-sponsored attack...