Advocates of "open access" scientific publishing wanted Britain to lead an international move from traditional subscription-based journals to a model that would make all research findings accessible to anyone with a computer. Their hopes were dashed yesterday when the government rejected the recommendations of the Commons science committee that it promote the new model - also known as "author-pays" - with practical actions such as help for universities to make all their researchers' papers available free online.

Although the angry MPs may have gone too far in accusing the Department of Trade and Industry of kow-towing to the publishing lobby at the expense of British science, the government should not have taken such a negative stance. A more measured response would have been to adopt some of the committee's suggestions for establishing Britain as a test-bed for open access journals, with publishing and peer review costs met ultimately by the research funding agencies, while making clear that there would be no precipitate move away from the existing system.