From update@publiclibraryofscience.org Tue Dec 17 11:39:20 2002 Return-Path: Delivered-To: don00-mail@pima.hostsharing.net Received: from rana.lbl.gov (rana.lbl.gov [131.243.56.46]) by mail.hostsharing.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id D3AFD2CE985 for ; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 11:39:20 +0100 (CET) Received: (from root@localhost) by rana.lbl.gov (8.11.6/8.11.6) id gBHAdIQ32733; Tue, 17 Dec 2002 02:39:18 -0800 Date: Tue, 17 Dec 2002 02:39:18 -0800 Message-Id: <200212171039.gBHAdIQ32733@rana.lbl.gov> From: Public Library of Science Initiative To: DOMINIQUE KASPAR Reply-To: Subject: News from Public Library of Science X-Spam-Status: No, hits=1.8 required=5.0 tests=NO_MX_FOR_FROM version=2.20 X-Spam-Level: * Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Mime-Version: 1.0 We are writing to you and 31,000 other colleagues who signed the Public Library of Science open letter, to share some exciting news: The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has awarded a $9 million grant to the Public Library of Science to enable us to launch new journals that will allow scientists to make their works freely and universally available from the moment of publication through international, online "public libraries of science", without sacrificing the recognition and audience that a reputable journal can provide. PLoS will begin by publishing two journals - PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine - that will retain all of the important features of scientific journals, including rigorous peer-review and high editorial standards, but will use a new business model in which the costs of these services are recovered by modest fees on each published paper. This new model will allow PLoS to make all published works immediately available online, with no charges for access or restrictions on subsequent redistribution or use. The Howard Hughes Medical Institute in the US has strongly endorsed this concept by by offering to cover the costs of open access publication by means of a budget supplement to each of its investigators. Several universities have recognized the tremendous value of open access publishing to the scientific and academic communities (as well as long term financial savings of this model) and have taken similar steps by providing funds from library budgets to support open access publishing. We are confident that other funding agencies and research institutions will similarly endorse the idea of using grant money and institutional funds to cover modest authors' fees. We have also taken steps to ensure that authors who do not have access to grant funds or institutional support that allow them to pay publication fees will still be able to publish their work in our journals. We have begun putting together a superlative professional editorial staff, and assembling a diverse, international editorial advisory board of outstanding scientists who share our goals. We are aiming to begin receiving submissions by summer 2003, and to begin publishing in the second half of 2003. You can find more information about this new initiative at: http://www.publiclibraryofscience.org (please bookmark it!). Thanks for your continued support. Harold E. Varmus Patrick O. Brown Michael B. Eisen for Public Library of Science