Weak spots in the professional journal armor are beginning to be exposed: Newsday reports that U.S. Rep. Martin Sabo, a Minnesota Democrat, has introduced legislation that would give immediate public access to all research papers created mostly with federal money, regardless of which journal publishes them. Given the billions of dollars of research that are funded by U.S. Government dollars, this is no small proposal. With the preponderance of collaboration in academic circles, and increasingly beyond the halls of academe, the question being asked increasingly by professionals is: given the ease of Web distribution, what's the big deal about publishing? Yes, there are academic standards to be met, but in an era in which content productivity in most professional organizations matches or exceeds that of publishers, the clear benefits of professionally distributed research are beginning to pale. If there was a peer-reviewed public posting site for publicly funded research, would the scientitic community cringe? Back to the basic value proposition, please, professional journal distributors.