Keith Taylor Tayler (sorry!), in a reply to the Purdy post below, raises the question of why journals are so expensive and inaccessible to those who don’t have institutional access.  It’s a very good question – and one that Brian Leiter’s recently been mulling, too.  (UPDATE: This is a point that applies equally well to those who the non-academic and the would-be academic.  There’re plenty of members of the public who would like access to journals… and there’s no shortage of people like me, either.  Five years ago, I was on the dole with a PhD that wasn’t going to generate any papers; I really could have done with online access to journals to keep up with the field and to be able to do some research in my ample spare time.  No job, no access; no access, no new papers; no new papers, no job; no job, no access…  I got lucky enough to be able to break the cycle, but I didn’t like having to rely on luck.  Nor did the person in the dole office understand my predicament.)

Not that I’m complaining about anything published by the gods of the BMJ.  Oh, no.  They’re all beyond reproach, obviously.