The Journal of Clinical Oncology (JCO) has announced that it will immediately begin providing free online access to original research articles older than 1 year. The journal, which is published by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), is available online at http://www.JCO.org.

“The Journal of Clinical Oncology is committed to improving cancer care worldwide by providing a forum for sound, peer-reviewed clinical cancer research, and by increasing access to this essential information,” said Charles M. Balch, MD, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer of ASCO. “In September 2003, the Journal took an important first step toward this goal by providing public health institutions in more than 100 developing countries free, or significantly discounted, online access. Now, the Journal is going a step further by providing free online access to archived Journal research for all, including teaching institutions, practicing oncologists, and the general public.”

Online readers will be able to access JCO research that is more than 12 months old without a subscription; this includes articles published from January 1999 to the present, all ASCO Clinical Practice Guidelines and Special Articles, the “Art of Oncology” series, all editorials, and the correspondence section. Research from January through March 2003 will be released immediately, and the remaining research dating from 1999 will become available over the next several weeks.

The Journal currently has more than 25,000 subscribers, and is published twice a month in English, bimonthly in Polish, and quarterly in Spanish. A monthly English-language edition is also published in China. In addition, selected articles are translated into French, German, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, and Ukrainian. Plans are under way to post these translations on the Journal website where they would be available under the same free access policy.

The Journal of Clinical Oncology is also part of the World Health Organization’s Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative, which aims to strengthen public health services by providing public health workers, researchers, and policy makers access to high-quality, relevant, and timely medical information.