Phil really is wrong about this. Anyone can access Biomed Central journals for nothing. The payment is for authors in an institution to publish in Biomed Central journals. The institution may (either by deliberate decision, or by a misunderstanding) make this payment from library funds. But it isn't the same thing as a journal subscription. As to whether the price will go up over time, only time will tell. I have no connection with Biomed Central, and I am not a fan of commercial publishers in scholarly publishing. I would certainly be most unhappy if Biomed Central were taken over by one of the big boys. Like Phil, I favour learned society publishing, having worked in it for half of my career. I do think, though, that the Biomed Central model is one that offers real hope for a better-value and more sustainable scholarly publishing system. It would be unfortunate if librarians perpetuate misunderstandings about this model, and condemn it when it has hardly started. They should be explaining the difference between this model and the conventional one carefully to the academics in their institutions, instead. Fytton Rowland, Department of Information Science, Loughborough University, UK.