Having had to WRITE these papers.... (Score 1)

Do a search on http://www.pubmed.gov/ under Maltenfort and you'll see my own contributions to the scientific literature. Having some credentials to blow, I'd like to throw a few observations into this discussion.

• Scientists have to pay to get published. It's called page charges. Even the Public Library of Science does it: http://www.plos.org/faq.html#pubfee. $1500 seems a bit thick if you don't know that most journals charge $50/page, more if you put in colored figures.
• If the journal articles are to be accessible to the public, then they can't just be free; there has to be a major change in the writing of scientific articles so that a layperson can get the gist of the material. This can only be good. Right now, the stiff prose of scientific journal articles is about as fun to write as it is to read. Personally, I find grants much more enoyable, as they require a critical review of a line of research and an evaluation of its potential impact on the taxpayers funding the work; it's as close to creative writing as you can get in science.