Apologies for cross posting

Press Release:  1st July 2002
For Immediate Release

Contact: Gordon Fletcher
Telephone: +44 (0)20 7323 0323
Fax: +44 (0)20 7580 1938
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Website:http://www.biomedcentral.com

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BioMed Central Launches Open Access Charter
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BioMed Central, the publishing company renowned
for publishing open access peer-reviewed research
articles, is publicly committing itself to
maintaining an open access publishing policy
through the launch of an Open Access Charter. The
charter commits BioMed Central to permanently
maintaining its open access publishing policy,
retrospectively and prospectively, in all
eventualities, including any future changes in
ownership. In this charter, open access is defined
as making peer-reviewed research articles publicly
accessible via the Internet without any
restrictions or payment by the user.

BioMed Central has shown that open access can be a
viable business model funded through article
processing charges. The success of BioMed
Central's institutional membership program, which
has attracted more than 30 institutions since
January, shows that by spreading the costs of
publishing across institutions open access can be
maintained. The full list of members (http://www.biomedcentral.com/inst/)
currently includes such high profile institutions
as Harvard University, the US National Institutes
of Health and the World Health Organization.

The success of open access publishing depends on
convincing authors it is in their interests to
publish in open access journals. The launch of the
Open Access Charter will do much to allay fears
open access publishing will be crushed by the
financial muscle of conventional publishers who
might try and buy open access publishers like
BioMed Central and "nip the development of open
access journals in the bud".

In the event of any change of ownership, an
independent Board of Trustees will be asked to
judge and advise whether sufficient guarantees to
continue a policy of unconditional open access for
research articles are being offered by any
prospective new owner. BioMed Central will not
enter into a change of ownership agreement unless
the Board of Trustees accepts these guarantees.

Jan Velterop, publisher at BioMed Central,
believes that the company has now put into place a
business model that is set to materially improve
the system of scholarly communication in the life
sciences and medicine.

"Following the success of our institutional
membership program, which has demonstrated a
viable business model for delivering open access
research, the Charter should remove any doubt that
open access publishing is here to stay"

The Board of Trustees consists of the following
members:
Brian Haynes, McMaster University
Steven Hyman, Harvard University
Marc Kirschner, Harvard Medical School
Philippe Kourilsky, Institut Pasteur
David Nathan, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Sir Paul Nurse, Cancer Research UK
Sir Richard Peto, University of Oxford
Harold Varmus, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer
Center
Mitsuhiro Yanagida, Kyoto University

Any change in the composition of the Board of
Trustees will be subject to approval by a majority
of the existing members of the Board of Trustees.

For further information about BioMed Central
contact Gordon Fletcher, [log in to unmask],
+44 (0) 20 0323 7323, or visit the BioMed Central
Website http://www.biomedcentral.com

To read further press releases from BioMed Central
visit:
http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/pr-releases.asp

BioMed Central (http://www.biomedcentral.com) is
an independent online publishing house committed
to providing immediate free access to the
peer-reviewed biological and medical research it
publishes. This commitment is based on the view
that open access to research is essential to the
rapid and efficient communication of science. In
addition to open-access original research, BioMed
Central also publishes reviews and other
subscription-based content.

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