Background: Doing a systematic review (SR) requires a comprehensive search for all relevant research, and a completed systematic review requires to be disseminated as widely as possible. However, many medical journals are expensive and their prices have increased far faster than the underlying rate of inflation. A large number of healthcare providers and patients in low-and middle-income countries cannot afford evidence which they need. For example, one Cochrane systematic review cost USD 29.95, which equals a medical student’s basic living expenses of a month in western provinces of China. Medical best evidence, a treasury of medical knowledge, are privately owned and sold only to those who can afford it. Objectives: To search and review SRs, meta-analysis, evidence based medical journals and other best evidence resources which could offer free online availability and open access. Methods: We searched Pubmed, CMB, SCI, Open J-Gate, DOAJ, Socolar, Ulrich’s Periodicals Directory, Medscape.com, Journalseek.net, and some relevant websites. Results: 1. Only 25% (3061/12088) of all SRs and 18% (5366/29870) of all meta-analyses are free in Pubmed. About 1800 SRs and meta-analyses are published in open access journals in the world. 2. About 75% of all medical journals are not free in any way. 3. Less than 30% of all medical journals made their recent issues available as open access in SCI database. 4. There are about 30 evidence-based journals at present worldwide, but only three of them (two published in China) are available online totally free. Conclusions: The current medical publishing system bars best evidence from being accessed. Providing access to reliable health information and best evidence for health workers and patients in developing countries is potentially the single most cost effective and achievable strategy for sustainable improvement in health care. If we want to carry the aims that ‘‘all cost effective treatments should be free’’ which Archie Cochrane advocated 70 years ago, we should carry the aims that ‘‘all best evidence should be free’’ first. After all, best evidence is not the personal property of its discoverer, but the common property of all.