Scientists want open access to research.

Twenty-five Nobel Prize-winning scientists have called for the U.S. government to make all taxpayer-funded research papers freely available to the public. In a letter to Congress and the National Institutes of Health (NIH), they wrote: "As scientists and taxpayers, too, we therefore object to barriers that hinder, delay or block the spread of scientific knowledge supported by federal tax dollars--including our own works."

Taxpayers pay for researchers to prepare, review, and edit manuscripts while scientific societies and large publishing firms reap the profits. About 25,000 scientific and scholarly journals worldwide publish studies. Most hold copyrights to papers, charging single-paper access fees as high as $28. Yearly subscription fees increased 226 percent from 1986 to 2000 and averaged $840 in 2004, according to the Association of Research Libraries. A one-year subscription to the journal Brain Research costs $18,856. Publishers say such fees are necessary for journals to survive, even for taxpayer-funded studies.

Over the past three years, according to USA Today, calls for open access to studies have grown louder. NIH chief Elias Zerhouni recently endorsed a June House Appropriations Committee directive to make electronic copies of NIH-funded research available for free within six months of publication, beginning next year. A new proposal from the NIH would require all public scientific articles based on taxpayer-funded research to be publicly available for free.

Publishers contend the House plan would threaten the survival of many scientific, scholarly, and medical publications and professional societies.

Today, the federal government funds about 59 percent of all academic research and development, followed by universities (20 percent), and state and local government (7.1 percent), according to the National Research Council.