What about poor countries who can&#x27;t afford to pay for many subscriptions in the field?  Should their scientists be banned from making contributions to science?<p>Spain is not very poor, but when I was doing research in Seville, the department simply could not afford subscriptions to most physics journals, so we had to write directly to the authors with mixed success.<p>How do you think a scientist in Senegal would feel about spending $6,000 [0] for access to a single journal for 5 researchers.<p>If the per-capita GNI is $1,000 [1], the equivalent in the US would be for your university to pay $330,000 for 5 people in your department to read _a single_ journal!!<p>[0] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.elsevier.com&#x2F;product.jsp?issn=03784371" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;store.elsevier.com&#x2F;product.jsp?issn=03784371</a>
 [1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.worldbank.org&#x2F;indicator&#x2F;NY.GNP.PCAP.CD&#x2F;countries&#x2F;SN-ZF-XN?display=graph" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;data.worldbank.org&#x2F;indicator&#x2F;NY.GNP.PCAP.CD&#x2F;countries...</a>