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The Great Open-Access War of '07

It began with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute pressuring Elsevier to allow articles to be freely accessible within six months of publication, says Alex Palazzo on his blog. They compromised. HHMI would pay $1500 per article by an HHMI researcher and then it could go into PubMed Central after six months. Then, a Journal of Cell Biology editorial criticized HHMI for giving in to Elsevier. HHMI responded that it is trying to balance public access with scholarly freedom. The JCB editors currently have the last word, "Instead, the public access movement has suffered because HHMI gave in to the selfish desire of some of their investigators to continue publishing in Cell. This serves neither the public, nor science."

The Scan

Latent HIV Found in White Blood Cells of Individuals on Long-Term Treatments

Researchers in Nature Microbiology find HIV genetic material in monocyte white blood cells and in macrophages that differentiated from them in individuals on HIV-suppressive treatment.

Seagull Microbiome Altered by Microplastic Exposure

The overall diversity and the composition at gut microbiome sites appear to coincide with microplastic exposure and ingestion in two wild bird species, according to a new Nature Ecology and Evolution study.

Study Traces Bladder Cancer Risk Contributors in Organ Transplant Recipients

In eLife, genome and transcriptome sequencing reveal mutation signatures, recurrent somatic mutations, and risky virus sequences in bladder cancers occurring in transplant recipients.

Genes Linked to White-Tailed Jackrabbits' Winter Coat Color Change

Climate change, the researchers noted in Science, may lead to camouflage mismatch and increase predation of white-tailed jackrabbits.