online.wsj.com: If your child has a life-threatening disease and you’re desperate to read the latest research, you’ll be dismayed to learn that you can’t — at least not without hugely expensive subscriptions to a bevy of specialized journals or access to a major research library.

Your dismay might turn to anger when you realize that you paid for this research. Through the National Institutes of Health alone, American taxpayers funnel more than $28 billion annually into medical research. That’s leaving aside the billions more in public spending on state universities or the tax exemptions granted for gifts to private campuses. [ read more ]