Representatives from the United States' leading not-for-profit medical/scientific societies and publishers have announced their commitment to providing free access and wide dissemination of published research findings. Their commitment was conveyed by the American Academy of Pediatrics, American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and others, during a news conference in Washington at which they released Washington DC Principles for Free Access to Science - a statement representing 48 not-for-profit publishers, over 600,000 scientists and clinicians, and more than 380 journals