The Alternative: Journal Publishers Propose NIH Journal Linking Plan
Six months after the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented its weakened public access policy for the research it funds, the signatories of the DC Principles, a group of 57 medical and scientific nonprofit publishers, have offered a counter-proposal. The plan, delivered in a letter last week to NIH director Elias Zerhouni, would have the NIH offer online access to articles by linking directly to journal web sites indexed by the NIH’s Medline abstracting service.
Currently, the NIH plan enacted in May merely “requests” NIH-funded authors deposit their final manuscript (as opposed to the final, edited article) in PubMed Central, the NIH’s repository, within a year. That plan has satisfied virtually no one and has been heavily criticized by both opponents and proponents of the initially proposed NIH policy proposal which would have “required” deposit of the final manuscript within six months of publication. The publishers, who support increased free access to research, if not full open access, said the plan would better serve the public in gaining access to medical literature while also ensuring the important role of scientific journals. Although submissions to PubMed Central have reportedly picked up in recent months, they have lagged far beyond what supporters of the MIH policy had hoped for. To view the proposal, visit: www.dcprinciples.org/linkingproposal.pdf.
[Library Journal Academic Newswire (TM), November 1, 2005]
