Date: Sun, 6 Apr 2003 11:10:21 +0530 From: Subbiah Arunachalam <arun@mssrf.res.in> Friends: Close to three-fourths of investment in scientific research in India comes from the Government - through different departments such as the Department of Science and Technology, the Department of Biotechnology, the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the University Grants commission. The Heads of these departments could insist that all those who receive funds for research from them should publish their finding in open access journals (such as Current Science in India, which is absolutely free on the Web). The question is 'Will they?' What is surprising is that the scientists of the world, who are presumably 'scientific' while performing their research do not seem to be 'scientific' when it comes to disseminating their findings. We need more Stevan Harnads, Peter Subers and Leslie Chans to talk ceaselessly about the advantages of the open access system till a vast majority of the world's scientists are converted! Arun [Subbiah Arunachalam]