Congress Guarantees Access to Publicly Funded Research

This article from www.scienceprogress.org discusses landmark legislation that requires public access to studies funded with public dollars. This legislation will spur grass roots efforts to leverage open source to enable collaboration with those inside and outside of medicine. Ultimately, the best way to overcome the inertia and self-interest of the medical establishment is to dis-intermediate it through public scrutiny and participation. With this landmark legislation, the day draws closer when large InfoTech companies and bright individuals will join in next generation research models, like open source. Society will benefit as those outside medicine join forward thinkers within medicine to leverage their knowledge and skills to prevent disease and improve technology products.

Naturally, not everyone is pleased. Excerpt from the article:

"Opponents, led by members of the Association of American Publishers, launched their own coalition—dubbed PRISM, the Partnership for Research Integrity in Science and Medicine—to cast doubts on the provision’s impact on the peer review process and publisher copyrights, even equating public access with government censorship. PRISM in turn drew ridicule from science bloggers, who criticized the group’s statements as Orwellian and the group as astroturf, as PRISM declined to list its own membership."