Susan Morrissey, House May Ask NIH To Limit PubChem, Chemical & Engineering News, June 20, 2005. Excerpt: 'A house appropriations subcommittee has added language aimed at the National Institutes of Health's PubChem chemical structure database to a report accompanying the Labor, Health & Human Services (HHS) & Education appropriations bill....According to draft language, NIH is asked to reevaluate its database: "The committee is concerned that NIH is replicating scientific information services that already exist in the private sector. In order to properly focus PubChem, the committee urges NIH to work with private-sector providers to avoid unnecessary duplication and competition with private-sector chemical databases." In a statement, ACS noted that it is pleased with the report language. ACS also recognized recent interactions with NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni. "We appreciate Dr. Zerhouni's personal engagement in this issue and will continue to work diligently with NIH toward a collaborative model and solution that will best serve the scientific community." For its part, NIH said in a statement that it appreciates the House support of its "ongoing effort to resolve concerns about any potential impact on privately run chemical databases," adding that "NIH continues to work with ACS and is optimistic that we can move forward together to resolve any issues."'
(PS: The ACS is spinning the House action as well as it can --Chemical & Engineering News is published by the ACS. Because the ACS asked the House appropriations committee to defund PubChem and the committee refused, most observers think House action is a defeat for the ACS. For example, see Bobby Pickering's story in IWF, Eric Wills' story in CHE, or Jocelyn Kaiser's story in Science.)
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/20/2005 10:10:00 AM.
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.
