When it comes to legislation, a word or phrase can make a big difference. However, one word ("thereafter") tucked into current federal appropriations bill, now before the Senate after passing the House in late February, would make the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) public access policy, enacted last year, permanent. The Senate is expected to pass the bill as early as today.
In the section funding the NIH, section 217, pertaining to public access, reads: “The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter[emphasis added] that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.”
If passed intact, the language would solidify a major victory for open access advocates. The battle over public access, however, will likely not be over. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has re-introduced HR 801, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act —a bill that would undo the NIH policy— and forbid all future policies like that policy.
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Albanese wrote about the Senate action in the future tense. But the NY Times just reported that the Senate has since voted and approved the bill. President Obama has said he will sign it tomorrow. If we disregard present and future iterations of the Conyers bill, then the President's signature will make the NIH policy permanent. Yes, this is big.
But we can't overlook the Conyers bill. As I read it, the Conyers bill could still repeal the NIH policy and block similar policies at other federal agencies. Hence, vigilance and opposition are still imperative. The real gain from today's vote is that if we can defeat the Conyers bill, the NIH policy won't need renewal next year or any other year.
I should add that even without today's vote, the NIH might have been able to continue its policy on its own authority, without a directive from Congress. If so, it has an ace to keep up its administrative sleeve. But the Congressional directive is still very good news.
President Obama yesterday signed into law the 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act, which includes a provision making the National Institutes’ of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy permanent....
The NIH policy was previously implemented with a provision that was subject to annual renewal. Since the implementation of the revised policy the percentage of eligible manuscripts deposited into PMC has increased significantly, with over 3,000 new manuscripts being deposited each month. The PubMed Central database is a part of a valuable set of public database resources at the NIH, which are accessed by more than 2 million users each day.
The new provision reads in full:
The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.
..."Public access to publicly funded research contributes directly to the mission of higher education,” said David Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs at NASULGC (the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges). “Improved access will enable universities to maximize their own investment in research, and widen the potential for discovery as the results are more readily available for others to build upon.”
Heather Joseph, spokesperson for the Alliance for Taxpayer Access noted, “Thanks to the work of a wide coalition of patients, libraries, researchers, publishers, students, and taxpayers, the results of NIH-funded research can be accessed – and used - in ways never before possible. The successful implementation of this policy will unlock the potential of this research to benefit the public as a whole.”
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.
