All the doctors I know (including yours truly) make regular use of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) PubMed database, where we have free access to research that keep us up to date on the latest developments in medicine.  This database, open to the public as well, provides us all a return on our tax dollars which support much of this health research through grants.

The journals who first publish this research have been allowed to protect their subscriber bases by exclusively publishing articles for one year, prior to their posting on PubMed.  However, there is now a bill before Congress to require a fee of $15-30 for each article accessed by readers of PubMed.  In addition to being  yet another factor driving up the cost of medical care, does it make sense that we pay again to access studies we helped pay for in the first place?

(Are you surprised to hear that one of the sponsoring senators has received campaign contributions from a large journal publisher in her district?)

Please let your Congressional representatives know that you value free access to medical research, and ask them to vote against the bill that would make access cost-prohibitive.   It just takes a moment via this link:  http://www.anh-usa.org/no-science-for-you/

I’d love to hear your comments below.