May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Harvard Law School will become the first U.S. law school to distribute professors' scholarly articles over the Internet for free, following a similar move by the university's arts and science faculty three months ago.

The 92-member law faculty, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, voted last week to post articles in an online repository that will be searchable by other Internet services, according to a statement today. Educators at other schools can freely provide the articles to students if the material isn't used for profit.

The vote advances the movement to make scholarship more widely available to individuals and institutions that sometimes pay thousands of dollars a year for a single academic journal subscription. Harvard Law's move also may challenge legal databases that collect law journal articles, such as Thomson Reuters Plc's Westlaw and Reed Elsevier Plc's Lexis-Nexis, said John Palfrey, a Harvard law professor who pushed for the motion.

``The economics of publishing, both in the scholarly field and in the trade press, is changing very quickly in the digital era,'' said Palfrey, who also is vice dean of library and information resources. ``I think this is a period of transition, where we have to balance the interests of openness and access to scholarship against certain economic interests. There is that tension.''

The unanimous decision followed a Feb. 13 vote by Harvard's arts and sciences professors, the largest faculty at the university. Both policies encourage professors to post articles on a Harvard Web site, and allow professors who want to restrict publication to an academic journal to keep articles off the site.

Hundreds of Articles

``Our decision to embrace `open access' means that people everywhere can benefit from the ideas generated here at the law school,'' said Law School Dean Elena Kagan in today's statement.

Harvard Law's faculty members probably produce a few hundred articles a year, Palfrey said. The articles, like those from other faculties, are typically published in journals affiliated with a law school, many of which are student-run and receive some financial support from the institution, he said.

The school's decision doesn't threaten the Harvard Law Review, said Bob Allen, the journal's editor-in-chief. The publication already allows authors to post their articles on their own Web sites, and its subscription revenue has been shrinking for years as articles become more widely available online.

The Harvard Law Review gets an increasing share of revenue from selling articles to Westlaw and Lexis-Nexis, he said.

Scholars, and the people who read their work, will still look for the legitimacy conveyed by having a manuscript published in a journal, Allen said.

Navigating Literature

``There's so much scholarship being produced that you sort of need that indicator to help you navigate the literature,'' said Allen, 24, a second-year student from Atlanta. ``I think that's the role we'll continue to play. The name of the journal stands as backing for the veracity of sourcing and factual claims in the piece.''

Bloomberg LP, the parent of Bloomberg News, competes with Thomson Reuters and with Lexis.

To contact the reporter on this story: Brian Kladko in Boston at bkladko@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 7, 2008 15:36 EDT