Quaking With Fear

There is increasing political will for open access to taxpayer-financed scientific research, The Economist reports. The British government recently announced that all research that it funds must be freely available online, beginning in 2013. Shortly thereafter, the European Union said that research it funds between 2014 and 2020 must also be accessible online, for free. Further, The Economist says, the success of open-access publisher Public Library of Science has led to it offering seven journals and an influx of new open-access journals. "A revolution, then, has begun. Technology permits it; researchers and politicians want it," The Economist writes. "If scientific publishers are not trembling in their boots, they should be."