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Free Global Virtual Scientific Library

Posted by kdawson on from the free-as-in-research dept.

Several readers wrote in with news of the momentum gathering behind free access to government-funded research. A petition "to create a freely available virtual scientific library available to the entire globe" garnered more than 20,000 signatures, including several Nobel prize winners and 750 education, research, and cultural organizations from around the world. The European Commission responded by committing more than $100 million towards support for open access journals and for the building of infrastructure needed to house institutional repositories able to store the millions of academic articles written each year. In the article Michael Geist discusses the open access movement and its critics.

5 of 113 comments (clear)

  1. And we'll call it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Wikipedia!

    1. Re:And we'll call it... by eln · · Score: 3, Funny

      I had an appointment for next week so my doctor could prescribe me some medication he read about on Wikipedia, but he had to cancel it. Turns out he had to go on an emergency hunting expedition to Africa to try and help with the elephant overpopulation issues they've been dealing with lately.

  2. Free Access to information? by bdr529 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Yeah. We remember what happened to the LAST "freely available virtual scientific library available to the entire globe".

  3. Obligatory nitpick with summary by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Interesting, but what if I want to see papers from real science, not virtual science?

    ("Free Global Science Virtual Library" might have been a better choice.)

  4. Free Global Virtual Scientific by jomama717 · · Score: 3, Funny

    I haven't seen that many adjectives in a row since my wife's last order at Starbucks...

    --
    while [ 1 ]; do echo -n -e "\xe2\x95\xb$((($RANDOM&1)+1))"; done