(Fwd) Please tell your colleagues about Public Library of Scie

[Thomas Hilberer <Thomas.Hilberer _at__ ub.uni-duesseldorf.de>]

...was ich hiermit (gerne) tue:

Dear Colleague,

We write to ask for your support of an initiative to provide
unrestricted access to the published record of scientific research.
An open letter in support of this initiative has been signed by more
than 4,500 scientists from 91 countries. We hope you will take a
minute to read the letter and consider signing it. 

The open letter, a list of the scientists who have already signed it,
and some answers to frequently asked questions are posted at:
http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org. This site also provides a way
for colleagues to sign the open letter online. 

You may also wish to read an editorial written by Richard J. Roberts,
recently published in PNAS, which explains why he supports the
initiative (http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/041601398v1). 

This is a grassroots initiative, and the breadth and depth of support
it receives from the scientific community will determine its success.
If you decide to support this effort, please consider spending an
hour or two of your time in the next week talking to colleagues at
your own and other institutions, explaining to them the reasons that
you chose to support it, and encouraging them to join you in signing
the letter. Your effort can really make a difference.




======== OPEN LETTER ========

We support the establishment of an online public library that would
provide the full contents of the published record of research and
scholarly discourse in medicine and the life sciences in a freely
accessible, fully searchable, interlinked form. Establishment of this
public library would vastly increase the accessibility and utility of
the scientific literature, enhance scientific productivity, and
catalyze integration of the disparate communities of knowledge and
ideas in biomedical sciences. 

We recognize that the publishers of our scientific journals have a
legitimate right to a fair financial return for their role in
scientific communication. We believe, however, that the permanent,
archival record of scientific research and ideas should neither be
owned nor controlled by publishers, but should belong to the public,
and should be freely available through an international online public
library. 

To encourage the publishers of our journals to support this endeavor,
we pledge that, beginning in September, 2001, we will publish in,
edit or review for, and personally subscribe to, only those scholarly
and scientific journals that have agreed to grant unrestricted free
distribution rights to any and all original research reports that
they have published, through PubMed Central and similar online public
resources, within 6 months of their initial publication date.
****
Danke fuers Lesen und schoene Gruesse,
Thomas Hilberer
Weitere wichtige Initiativen im Zeitschriftensektor:
http://www.uni-duesseldorf.de/ulb/zeit.html#akt


-------
Dr. Thomas Hilberer, c/o Universitaets- und Landesbibliothek Duesseldorf
Tel.: + 49 211 81-13524; FAX: + 49 211 81-13054
Universitaetsstr. 1, D-40225 Duesseldorf
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