Although at least ten years too late, if Nature (29th April) is to be
believed, Varmus and his advisers have got it right!
A proposed "repository" will:
-accept papers in all areas of biomedicine
-allow posting of papers with or without reviewing
-not take copyright from authors
-provide some sort of review ranking for those who so desire
-allow updating of papers, the original still to be conserved
The only problem is that there is talk of only ONE archival site.
Like the Library of Alexandria, there is great vulnerability here. A
bomb, or some other malfeasance, and ALL would be lost. There is also
the problem of some insider tinkering with the record. We need to have
>2 sites at different locations on the planet, and under different supervision (like GenBank).
Sincerely, Donald Forsdyke Discussion Leader
