In Final Policy, NIH Makes Public Access Voluntary
Seven months after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) proposed an ambitious policy to offer free access to medical research, the final policy, released February 3, leaves the issue pretty much where it started. Although the draft policy would have "required" NIH-funded authors to deposit their final papers in the NIH’s PubMed Central database for access within six months, the final policy makes submission voluntary. The policy "requests" that, beginning May 2, NIH-funded scientists submit an electronic version of their final manuscripts, defined as the final version accepted for journal publication, including modifications from the peer review process, for deposit in PubMed Central "as soon as possible, and within 12 months of final publication." The NIH said it would "strongly encourage" scientists to make their articles available as soon as possible. To communicate the policy, the NIH will establish a Public Access Advisory Working Group, as a subgroup of the National Library of Medicine’s Board of Regents. The Working Group will include patient’s rights advocates and members of the scientific, library, and publishing communities; it will provide advice on implementation issues and assess progress in meeting the new policy’s stated goals.
NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, who initially defended the original draft of the policy in meetings with concerned publishers, put a positive spin on the new policy. "In developing this policy, we made a concerted effort to balance the importance of this archive to NIH’s public health mission, with the need to provide flexibility for authors, their institutions, and publishers in those cases where immediate release is not possible," he said in a statement. "Nevertheless, we expect that only in limited cases will authors deem it necessary to select the longest delay period." Although the policy falls far short of what open access advocates sought, it does represent a step forward. "It is important that we be diligent now and see how the policy works," said SPARC (Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition) Director Rick Johnson. "We’ve got the ball rolling, even if we’re not pleased with the speed at this point." Johnson added that the debate has also called greater attention to the issue.
Still, he said the final proposal is "neither what we hoped for nor proposed." The release of the final policy follows months of intense debate and consideration of more that 6,000 public comments. For more information, visit http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm. Or read the entire policy at: http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/publicaccess_imp.pdf
[Library Journal Academic Newswire (TM), February 8, 2005]
