Europe Steps Into the Open With Plans for Electronic Archives.

The article reports that while moves in the U.S. to make scientific research results available at the click of a mouse have generated intense debate, European research organizations have quietly been forging ahead. Slowly but surely, they are starting to build and connect institutional and even nationwide public archives that will, according to proponents, be the mega libraries of the future, allowing anyone with an Internet connection to access papers that result from publicly funded research. In France, the government's four major research institutes, 6 weeks ago jointly declared their intention to move toward open archives.