BioMed Central

[Gordon Fletcher <Gordon@biomedcentral.com>]

Dear Phil

Thanks for your interest in BioMed Central. I hope this email can clear up
any confusion surrounding the different companies, services and products
you mentioned.

1. BioMedNet is a web service owned and operated by Elsevier Science.

2. PubMed Central is not a journal publisher but a US government supported
service. They describe themselves as "a digital archive of life sciences
journal literature managed by the National Center for Biotechnology
Information at the U.S. National Library of Medicine". Access to PubMed
Central is free and unrestricted.

3. BioMed Central is a limited company, independent of government or
society funding or subsidies.

The confusion with regard to these names is unfortunate, but we hope
increasing familiarity with the products, services and companies will
no-doubt alleviate this situation, just as there is little confusion
nowadays as to the difference between the journals Science, The Scientist,
New Scientist, and The Sciences.

BioMed Central Ltd is part of the Current Science Group and is a business
hoping eventually to make a fair profit by offering a service to the
scientific community that is second to none. There is no particular desire
or intention to hide or withhold this information. It is clearly mentioned
on our website, in the "Who we are" section.

BioMed Central has, admittedly, an unusual business model, with free
access to primary research publications as one of its most notable
policies. We intend to demonstrate that this is a viable model, which if
adopted widely, may reduce the total cost of published research
information to the scientific community by as much as a factor of 10 and
materially increase its availability at the same time.

Useful Links:

BioMed Central - who we are
(http://www.biomedcentral.com/info/whoweare.asp)
Current Science Group
(http://www.currentsciencegroup.com)
PubMed Central (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/)
BioMedNet (http://www.bmn.com)

Regards

Dr Gordon Fletcher
Press Officer
BioMed Central Limited
Middlesex House
32-34 Cleveland Street
London
W1T 4LB
Tel: +44 (0)20 7323 0323 ext 2331
E-mail: gordon@biomedcentral.com
Web: www.biomedcentral.com