Big Publishers Unveil Access Plan in Light of NIH Policy
With the National Institutes of Health’s plan to open up access to the research endorsed by Congress and with implementation discussions under way, a nascent collective of commercial STM publishers and medical groups are presenting a plan of their own for increased access. The coalition effort, under the moniker patientINFORM, includes the top commercial STM publishers Elsevier, Springer, and Wiley, plus the American Cancer Society, American Heart Association, and American Diabetes Association, among others. The group plans a spring web launch (www.patientinform.org) and will offer a portion of research on cancer, diabetes and heart disease for free, as well as commentary and other links to information sources. SPARC director Rick Johnson–a member of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, which supports the NIH proposal–cautiously praised the new program but raised questions. "This one is too little too late," Johnson said. "It is ironic that this limited experiment has only now emerged after a majority of public interest and patient advocates already have weighed in to support the NIH enhanced public access program. The purpose, scope and timing of this development are all questionable at best."
Wiley spokesperson Susan Spilka denied that the proposal was an attempt to detract from the NIH proposal. Spilka called it "a parallel development that addresses the same concerns" and said that discussions about the program began 18 months ago. She acknowledged, however, that the announcement was "accelerated so at it can be considered an alternative to the NIH proposal." She asserted that patientINFORM would be more effective than the NIH proposal at getting useful research information to the public "because it couples raw research with interpretive materials aimed at consumers." Indeed, one key criticism of the NIH proposal by publishers is that much of the research published in specialized journals is aimed strictly at other professional researchers and would not be understood by most lay readers. The NIH plan, they argue, would therefore cut disproportionately into publishers’ journal subscriptions by making the contents of their journals freely available to researchers without providing a maximum benefit to the general public. Spilka said that, once up and running, patientINFORM would continue to expand the scope of the research it offers, adding publishers and more patient health associations.
Johnson acknowledged that any effort to further free research should be welcomed. He argued, however, that the effort should not detract from the NIH effort, which he called "the gold standard" for making taxpayer-supported research accessible. "If patientINFORM is public relations masquerading as good policy, then the public will be the losers."
Library Journal Academic Newswire, December 14, 2004
