Open Access Radiology Articles

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I must admit that I am a strong supporter of open access medical literature. My academic hospital provides doctors with access to subscribed articles from our workstations. Growing number of medical publishers switches from paper to digital only distribution. This is much more efficient in terms of searching for information, storing, as well as more environment friendly. With growing choice of electronic reading devices (PCs, notebooks, tablets, smartphones) it is even more easy and common to read medical literature in electronic form. However the way of accessing articles through hospital computer is still far from optimal. It happens to me that I struggle with a difficult case and find an interesting article in PubMed that I can not open since the article is restricted by publisher and my hospital has no subscription. Yes I am offered a 30$! per article purchase, and yes I can order this article through my library - but I need this information now! What is more interesting is that authors of medical articles are not paid for their articles and thus would welcome when articles are more open to the public. But the publishers put high pay-walls. I understand that publishers need revenue for peer reviews and other administrative costs. But there are ways to cut those costs like publish online and perhaps get sponsors or adopt Apple pay system - of low costs but high volume of sells. In such situation I welcome kind initiatives of Open Access Medical Articles. Below is a selection of some interesting recent Neuroradiology articles from AJNR.


Y.W. Lui - Sphenoid Masses in Children: Radiologic Differential Diagnosis with Pathologic Correlation
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2011;32 617-626


G. Zuccoli - Redefining the Guillain-Barre´ Spectrum in Children: Neuroimaging Findings of Cranial Nerve Involvement
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2011;32 639-642


M. Eapen - Using High-Resolution MR Imaging at 7T to Evaluate the Anatomy of the Midbrain Dopaminergic System
AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2011;32 688-694

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