I have been researching different pulmonary function topics for quite a few years. The medical libraries I’ve frequented were, of course, originally all paper-based and to be able to find an article the library or one of the department’s physicians had to subscribe to the journal in question. In the last fifteen years we have all seen an explosion in on-line publishing and it has become much easier to research articles. I vigorously applaud the pulmonary medicine journals (Chest, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, European Respiratory Journal, Journal of Applied Physiology, Thorax) for having opened part or all of their archives to anybody who wants to search and download articles.
There are a number of other journals, however, that remain entirely behind paywalls. I was reminded of this recently while looking for an article on diffusing capacity from the 1970’s only to find that it would cost me $31 to access it (and then only for 24 hours). Although strictly speaking this does not prevent anyone from accessing these articles, anybody who does has to have deep pockets and this is acting as a significant barrier to the ability of individuals and institutions to obtain and to share information.