It's been a big year for proponents of the open-science revolution. In January, an angry blog post quickly transformed into a clarion call within the scientific community over the exorbitant cost of academic journal subscriptions. In May, the British government announced it would be collaborating with Wikipedia…

The wealthiest university of Earth can't afford its academic journal subscriptions. Why not? Because academic journals are expensive. Now, the British government is doing its part to change that.

The United Kingdom's science minister, David Willetts, thinks that private and international investments can help establish the UK as a world leader in scientific and technological research. But is Willett's plan really feasible? And if it is, is it one the United States could utilize as well?