Drug Safety Open-access journals are available online to the reader "without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from gaining access to the internet itself. Advantages and disadvantages of Drug Safety open-access journals are the subjects of much discussion amongst scholars and publishers. Reactions of existing publishers to Drug Safety open-access journal publishing have ranged from moving with enthusiasm to a new open-access business model, to experiments with providing as much free or open access as possible, to active lobbying against open-access proposals. A few obvious advantages of Drug Safety open-access journals include the free access to scientific papers regardless of affiliation with a subscribing library, lower costs for research in academia and industry, in addition to improved access for the general public and higher citation rates for the author.