Abstract
In the wake of the Public Library of Science debate, September saw the launch of the new E-BioSci project, an effort to set up Europe as a pioneer in the establishment of an electronic scientific publishing system open to all. Describing the initiative as ‘…an opportunity not to be missed, both to increase the competitiveness of our editorial industry and to improve access for researchers and society in general to quality scientific publications’, EU Research Commissioner Philippe Busquin declared an award of 2.4 million Euros to E-BioSci. The database will interlink genomic and proteomic data with the latest in life sciences research literature, providing free availability to much published material, speed of access, back-up facilities, and streamlined searches to help researchers crosslink and navigate the ever-increasing volume of biological information. The E-BioSci project coordinator Les Grivell (from EMBO) cited statistics showing that in 1988, 20 000 new biotech database records were created on an annual basis. By the year 2000, this many records were being added daily.The main participants in the project include publishers, scientists, libraries and funding agencies from Germany, Spain, France and the UK, coming together in a virtual network that is being seen as the nucleus of a European Research Area (ERA). Julio Celis, representing both the Federation of Biochemical Societies and the European Molecular Biology Conference, stated that ‘we have to be careful not to give everything for free, otherwise we won't exist any more’. But Celis was also well disposed towards the initiative, remarking ‘it will help less favoured countries gain faster access to information that is already there’. S de B (http://dbs.cordis.lu)
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