The NIH has released the author addendum (or "cover sheet") it requires when NIH employees publish articles based on NIH-funded research. (Thanks to Michael A. Rogawski.) Excerpt:
By signing this Cover Sheet, the Author, on behalf of NIH, agrees to the provisions set out below, which modify and supersede...any conflicting or ambiguous provisions that are in the Publisher’s standard copyright agreement....NIH and Author accept only those provisions of the Publisher’s Agreement that are consistent with the provisions herein....
3. Copyright. Author’s contribution to the Work was done as part of the Author’s official duties as a NIH employee and is a Work of the United States Government. Therefore, copyright may not be established in the United States. 17 U.S.C. § 105. If Publisher intends to disseminate the Work outside of the U.S., Publisher may secure copyright to the extent authorized under the domestic laws of the relevant country, subject to a paid-up, nonexclusive, irrevocable worldwide license to the United States in such copyrighted work to reproduce, prepare derivative works, distribute copies to the public and perform publicly and display publicly the work, and to permit others to do so....
6. Disclaimer. NIH and the Author expressly disclaim any obligation in Publisher’s Agreement that is not consistent with the Author’s official duties or the NIH mission....
7. For Peer-Reviewed Papers to be Submitted to PubMed Central. The Author is a US government employee who must comply with the NIH Public Access Policy....PubMed Central may tag or modify the work consistent with its customary practices....
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
