Developments in electronic publishing in the biomedical sciences

Abstract

This paper reports on developments in biomedical electronic publishing since the mid‐1990s. These cover the HighWire, PubMed Central, BioOne, the Public Library of Science, E‐BioSci and BioMed Central services. The issues raised by these developments are outlined and include the need to attract good quality papers, the ownership of copyright, how developments are funded, the question of whether a distributed or centralised system is adopted, and preservation of content.