Legislation to provide for a sweeping overhaul of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) - the first of its kind in 13 years - includes key report language underscoring Congressional oversight to actively monitor participation rates and overall effectiveness of the NIH's Public Access Policy.
The NIH Reauthorization Bill, authored by House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Joe Barton, passed the House of Representatives on Tuesday, September 26.
"We're pleased that the House committee responsible for overseeing NIH included report language addressing the existing Public Access Policy, and indicated it will be paying close attention to the policy's ongoing performance," said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition) and spokesperson for the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA).
The importance of the public access policy was also brought into focus at last week's markup of the bill, when Congressman Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania echoed concerns about the meager participation rate - less than five percent - under the current voluntary policy.
"There's just no better way to put it - it's not right. The American taxpayer paid for this research - they'll pay nearly 30 billion dollars next year alone - and they are entitled to expect that publicly funded research is available to anyone who might use it to improve health conditions in the U.S. and around the world," Doyle said at the markup....
Committee Chairman Joe Barton responded during markup, telling Doyle he shares many of his concerns regarding the function of the public access policy and pledging to work with the Congressman to implement reform measures....
Earlier this year, the House Appropriations Committee approved language that would amend the existing NIH Public Access Policy so that deposit of articles would be mandatory for all NIH-funded researchers.
PS: The appropriations language that would strengthen the NIH policy from a request to a requirement is still pending. The reauthorization bill today is a separate action, showing that impatience is building in Congress for the NIH policy to meet its original goals.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/27/2006 05:53:00 PM.
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.
