Almost 80% of the 1400 respondents stated that limited access to full-text documents was the most annoying aspect of online literature searches
While scientists often cite staying abreast of developments in their field as the most common reason for reading scientific literature, it is by far from the only reason.
"Scientists perceive their ability to access scientific and medical literature almost as an unalienable right of their profession", observes Tamara Zemlo, director of the Science Advisory Board.
The internet has reinforced this perception by increasing the speed and ease by which these searches can be conducted.
To find out what is the biggest obstacle to this ubiquitous scientific practice, members of the Science Advisory Board participated in a poll to address, 'What makes searching scientific and medical literature online frustrating?'.
Almost 80% of the 1400 respondents stated that limited access to full-text documents was the most annoying aspect of online literature searches.
It far exceeded the other complaints of broken hypertext links, copyright restrictions, and inadequate search engines.
Such sentiments will be sweet music to the ears of Public Library of Science (PLoS) founders who espouse the philosophy that unrestricted access to scientific and medical literature will accelerate progress in these critical fields. Their model of offering full-text and data of published research articles - available free of charge anywhere in the world - is still being tested.
Time will tell whether the scientists who, in theory, embrace the nobility of this idea, will choose to publish their own findings in such a venue.
