Public Library of Science Launches PLoS Medicine at Gala Hosted by the Wellcome Trust; New Open-Access Journal Increases Access to Medical Research to Speed Medical Advances

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 17, 2004--The launch this week of the inaugural issue of PLoS Medicine, the most significant international general medicine journal to emerge in over 70 years, will be celebrated tonight at a gala event hosted by the Wellcome Trust. PLoS Medicine represents a wind-change in scientific publishing, as it is an 'open access' publication, available freely to all without a subscription charge. The Wellcome Trust and the publisher, the Public Library of Science (PLoS) share a mission to promote open, unrestricted access to scientific and medical research.

The inaugural issue, now available on the web and in print, features peer-reviewed research articles on topics as diverse as the global burden of disease and cellular changes in smoking-related lung disease, written by highly-respected clinicians. The journal also contains exciting debates on controversial issues, commissioned expert perspectives on published studies, and summaries of research for non-specialist physicians and lay summaries for patients.

“The promise of free, online primary research articles has recently made extraordinary progress in the UK's House of Commons, the US Congress and National Institutes of Health, and research institutions around the world, including the Wellcome Trust”

"The promise of free, online primary research articles has recently made extraordinary progress in the UK's House of Commons, the US Congress and National Institutes of Health, and research institutions around the world, including the Wellcome Trust," states Dr. Harold E. Varmus, Nobel Laureate, former National Institutes of Health Director, and a co-founder of PLoS. "PLoS Medicine intends to be among the world's premier general medicine journals, publishing important, peer-reviewed original discoveries freely available to all."

The 20 July 2004 report by the UK House of Commons Science and Technology Committee called the current subscription model of scientific publishing "unsatisfactory" and outlined a plan to store the scientific and medical literature from UK institutions such that "it can be read, free of charge, online" -- a watershed recommendation for its recognition that unrestricted access to government-funded scientific work is an achievable priority.

Professor Ian Gibson, Chair of the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee, and Dean of Biology at the University of East Anglia before his election to Parliament in 1997, believes: "Journals are the hard currency of research. Currently, many people who need to read journals are struggling to gain access to them. It is vital to the health of UK and global science that the situation improves. Our Report suggests a practicable way forward and we hope to seem many of its recommendations implemented by the Government."

Restrictions to public access of important research are driving Nobel laureates, patient advocacy groups and researchers across the world to call for open access. Many public and private funding organizations believe that open access ensures that the research they support reaches the widest possible audience.

Dr. Mark Walport, Director of the Wellcome Trust, says, "Research findings need to be freely and widely available to help scientists achieve the discoveries needed to improve health. Free and open access to the literature that reports the results of research has been made possible by developments in the internet. It is essential that scientists have the choice to be able to publish in high quality and rigorously peer-reviewed open access journals. I welcome journals such as PLoS Medicine that will offer such a service to the scientific community."

Dr. Richard Smith, PLoS Medicine Board Member, former Editor of the BMJ, and acknowledged visionary among medical journal editors, remarks: "The launch of PLoS Medicine provides an opportunity to reinvent medical journals. Publishers have made money by restricting access to research and limiting the development of new ideas. And I hope that free access to research will encourage greater public understanding of science. It will certainly be a boon for patients, many of whom are more even eager than doctors to access the latest research."

"The breadth of articles in our first issues shows our intention to be a journal for the entire global medical community," states Dr. Virginia Barbour, Senior Editor, PLoS Medicine. "The journal's editorial board includes nearly 100 experts from 28 different countries on five continents who represent the world's leading health researchers."

Professor Joep Lange, leading HIV researcher and PLoS Medicine author, comments: "Scientists and physicians have delivered astounding achievements in many areas of medicine. But we need to push them and their talents so that research and clinical care are available and made meaningful to those who need it the most."

Dr. Vivian Siegel, PLoS Executive Director, will introduce the evening's distinguished scientific and political speakers: Dr. Ian Gibson, MP; Dr. Mark Walport; Professor Joep Lange, University of Amsterdam and Chief Scientific Officer IATEC, Amsterdam; Dr. Richard Smith, CEO, UnitedHealth Group, Europe; and Dr. Virginia Barbour, Senior Editor of PLoS Medicine.

Medical and scientific publishing is an industry with revenues exceeding $10 billion per year. With the growing recognition by government and private research funding institutions that the publication of research is the last step in the scientific process, funding can be generated at the front end by the organizations that sponsor the work rather than at the back end through ever increasing subscription rates.

Dr. Siegel notes, "Independent economic evaluations support open access as a viable publishing model. PLoS is working towards achieving that vision through a comprehensive publishing plan for sustainability within 5 years."

PLoS Medicine is overseen by Senior Editors Dr. Virginia Barbour, physician and haematologist, and former Executive Editor of The Lancet; Dr. James Butcher, former Senior Editor at The Lancet and Editor of The Lancet Neurology; Dr. Barbara Cohen, geneticist and former Editor of Nature Genetics and Executive Editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation; and Magazine Editor Dr. Gavin Yamey, physician and former Deputy Editor of the Western Journal of Medicine, and Assistant Editor at the BMJ.

The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical research a public resource. PLoS publishes open-access journals of original peer-reviewed research, including PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine, which are available for free to anyone in the world with a connection to the internet. Visit www.plos.org and www.plosmedicine.org for more information.

The Wellcome Trust is an independent research funding charity established in 1936 under the will of the tropical medicine pioneer Sir Henry Wellcome. The Trust's mission is to foster and promote research with the aim of improving human and animal health and it currently spends over GBP 400 million per annum.