[e-drug] NIH Public Access Policy

[valeria.frighi@doctors.org.uk]

E-DRUG: NIH Public Access Policy

From: "Harold Varmus" <haroldvarmus@plos.org>
Date:  17 Feb 2005

To the PLoS Community:

The U.S. National Institutes of Health recently announced its
long-anticipated "Public Access Policy," designed to make the 
results of NIH-funded research freely available online. As of May 2005, the
agency will request that all NIH grantees deposit copies of all
papers arising from NIH-funded research in PubMed Central 
(PMC), the National Library of Medicines online library of scientific and
medical literature. These articles will then be made freely available
and fully searchable through PMC within 12 months of publication.
(More information about the policy is available at
http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm)

PLoS welcomes this announcement. It is an important step for 
those of us who believe that the results of publicly funded scientific and
medical research can and should be made freely available to
researchers and the public. However, because of the way the NIH 
has structured this policy, successful implementation will depend 
upon the supportive actions of NIH-funded researchers.

Under the NIHS Public Access Policy, grantees are requested to 
send a copy of every manuscript describing NIH-supported work to PMC
immediately upon acceptance by a peer-reviewed journal. The
manuscripts will be formatted for online display, and made freely
available through PMC at a time specified by the author. Clearly it
would be ideal if there were no delay between publication by the
journal and posting in PMC, so that all scientists and the public
would have immediate access to NIH-funded research. This is the 
case for articles published in all PLoS or other open-access journals.
However, authors who publish in most other journals may be 
pressured to delay public posting of their articles or not to post them at all. This pressure must be resisted.

It is critically important that all of us do everything we can to
make sure this new system succeeds. Technically, submission of
articles to PMC is voluntary, and the policy allows a delay of up to
12 months. However, it is clear that the NIH, Members of Congress,
and the public desire and expect full participation. If we fail to
meet these expectations, it could undermine the existing broad public
and legislative support for scientific research at a time when such
support is especially vital.

We therefore urge everyone who receives this message to make your
NIH-funded articles available in PMC immediately upon publication.
This can be accomplished in either of two ways:

(a) Publish your papers in open-access journals that already 
deposit their papers in PMC and make them immediately and freely 
available.

(b) If you publish in non open-access journals, deposit your
manuscripts in PMC and exercise your right to stipulate that they 
be posted online immediately upon publication.

Please share this message with your colleagues and urge them 
to help foster the success of the new policy. We would be happy to 
answer any questions, and we again thank you for your attention to and 
support of Open Access.

 Harold Varmus
 Patrick Brown
 Michael Eisen
 PLoS Founders
-------------------
Dr Valeria Frighi
Oxford Centre for Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolism
Churchill Hospital
Oxford OX3 7LJ
UK
Tel  # 44 1865 857300
Fax # 44 1865 857311
Mobile 07974 920013