JCI editor: "Open access already exists"

Ushma Savla, Open Access Already Exists, Science 303(5663), 1467 (5 March 2004). (Access restricted to subscribers.) The executive editor of the Journal of Clinical Investigation responds to recent press coverage on the one hand touting PLoS and BioMed Central as novel open-access experiments and on the other questioning the viability of open access journals. JCI has been open access since 1996 and Savla notes its high impact factor (14.051) for 2002. He writes that, to confront the inertia in the publishing industry, authors will need to think about what costs they might have to assume and what gains might they receive from an increased audience.