Paying for bmj.com

Editor—The BMJ is worth its weight in gold. It is sad to see the end of freely exchanged knowledge via the internet and to see that some will have privileged access over others.¹ I hope that this is not a return to the days when medical journals were closed to all but the few. Even in the 21st century some editors would prefer to keep their journals closed to those outside their discipline. One way of achieving this is to make it subscription only on proof of membership, which excludes the sort of debate opened up by the BMJ.

Worryingly, the editors at the BMJ seem unaware that poverty in the United Kingdom, as well as specified “lower and middle income countries,”¹ means that many people cannot access the paper BMJ. It is only kept in large city libraries. Such people certainly do not have access to computers and only some libraries give free access to the internet as yet. Lay readers need the information provided by the BMJ. They are not waiting at the portals in any prurient way but use the journal for research and information that is not accessible through other means. There are thousands who have no access to further education or specialist journals.

So the ideal of free access to knowledge and information on an equal basis through the internet falls by the wayside. Although understandable, this move is a sad way to end a decade.