[A2k] Public access to NIH research made law

[Manon Ress]

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[ Picked text/plain from multipart/alternative ]
Public access to NIH research made law

http://www.sciencecodex.com/public_access_mandate_made_law

President Bush has signed into law the Consolidated Appropriations Act
of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes a provision directing the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online
access to findings from its funded research. This is the first time
the U.S. government has mandated public access to research funded by a
major agency.

The provision directs the NIH to change its existing Public Access
Policy, implemented as a voluntary measure in 2005, so that
participation is required for agency-funded investigators. Researchers
will now be required to deposit electronic copies of their peer-
reviewed manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine=92s online
archive, PubMed Central. Full texts of the articles will be publicly
available and searchable online in PubMed Central no later than 12
months after publication in a journal.

"Facilitated access to new knowledge is key to the rapid advancement
of science," said Harold Varmus, president of the Memorial Sloan-
Kettering Cancer Center and Nobel Prize Winner. "The tremendous
benefits of broad, unfettered access to information are already clear
from the Human Genome Project, which has made its DNA sequences
immediately and freely available to all via the Internet. Providing
widespread access, even with a one-year delay, to the full text of
research articles supported by funds from all institutes at the NIH
will increase those benefits dramatically."

"Public access to publicly funded research contributes directly to the
mission of higher education,=94 said David Shulenburger, Vice President
for Academic Affairs at NASULGC (the National Association of State
Universities and Land-Grant Colleges). =93Improved access will enable
universities to maximize their own investment in research, and widen
the potential for discovery as the results are more readily available
for others to build upon.=94

=93Years of unrelenting commitment and dedication by patient groups and
our allies in the research community have at last borne fruit,=94 said
Sharon Terry, President and CEO of Genetic Alliance. =93We=92re proud of
Congress for their unrelenting commitment to ensuring the success of
public access to NIH-funded research. As patients, patient advocates,
and families, we look forward to having expanded access to the
research we need.=94

=93Congress has just unlocked the taxpayers=92 $29 billion investment in
NIH,=94 said Heather Joseph, Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly
Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition, a founding member of the
ATA). =93This policy will directly improve the sharing of scientific
findings, the pace of medical advances, and the rate of return on
benefits to the taxpayer."

Joseph added, =93On behalf of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access, I=92d like
to thank everyone who worked so hard over the past several years to
bring about implementation of this much-needed policy.=94

For more information, and a timeline detailing the evolution of the
NIH Public Access Policy beginning May 2004, visit the ATA Web site at http=
://www.taxpayeraccess.org
.



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Manon Anne Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org,

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Il vaut mieux remuer une question, sans la d=E9cider, que la d=E9cider,
sans la remuer.
Pens=E9es, essais, maximes et correspondance de J. Joubert  p.249
http://visualiseur.bnf.fr/Visualiseur?Destination=3DGallica&O=3DNUMM-88671
Translation: It is better to debate a question without settling it
than to settle a question without debating it