PNAS and open access

http://www.pnas.org/
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
I am sending the following message on behalf of the PNAS publisher, Ken Fulton; however, please respond to me if you have questions or comments.

Thank you,

George Kendall
Production, Marketing, and Licensing Manager
PNAS
E-mail: gkendall@nas.edu
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Dear Colleague,

The benefits of open access to the scientific literature are obvious and unassailable, and this year we instituted an open access option for authors.

We also believe that it is essential to involve institutions in open access for its long-term viability, and beginning in 2005, each PNAS Institutional Site License will automatically include an Institutional Open Access Membership. Corresponding authors from institutions with 2005 Site Licenses/Open Access Memberships will receive a 25% discount off our Open Access Fee (regularly $1000) to make their papers immediately free online. We offer this plan without increasing our site license rates over 2004.

A number of librarians have told us that they support this new initiative, and we hope that it will provide an incentive for institutions to adopt site licenses, to which we have given added value. Please help us inform
authors at your institution about the PNAS Open Access Option and the 2005 Site License/Open Access Membership discount. PNAS is a break-even operation and relies about equally on author fees and on subscription fees to cover its operating costs.

The 2005 PNAS site license rates are at www.pnas.org/subscriptions
.
Sincerely,

Ken Fulton, Publisher
PNAS