Fascinating front page story in today’s Wall Street Journal: Peer Pressure: Scholarly Journals’ Premier Status Is Diluted by Web; More Research Is Free Online Amid Spurt of Start-Ups; Publishers’ Profits at Risk:

[A] raging Internet-era debate about who should control information and what it should cost. For decades, traditional scholarly journals have held an exalted and lucrative position as arbiters of academic excellence, controlling what’s published and made available to the wider community. These days, research is increasingly available on free university Web sites and through start-up outfits. Scholarly journals are finding their privileged position under attack.