[Ip-health] (Press Release) NIH Calls on Scientists to Speed Public Release of Research Publications

[Mike Palmedo]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 3, 2005

CONTACT: Don Ralbovsky
OD Office of Communications and Public Liaison
301-496-5787

NIH Calls on Scientists to Speed Public Release of Research Publications
Online Archive Will Make Articles Accessible to the Public

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today a new policy
designed to accelerate the public's access to published articles
resulting from NIH-funded research. The policy =97 the first of its kind
for NIH =97 calls on scientists to release to the public manuscripts from
research supported by NIH as soon as possible, and within 12 months of
final publication.

These peer-reviewed, NIH-funded research publications will be available
in a Web-based archive to be managed by the National Library of Medicine
(NLM), a component of NIH. The online archive will increase the public's
access to health-related publications at a time when demand for such
information is on a steady rise.

"With the rapid growth in the public's use of the Internet, NIH must
take a leadership role in making available to the public the research
that we support," said NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni, M.D. "While this
new policy is voluntary, we are strongly encouraging all NIH-supported
researchers to release their published manuscripts as soon as possible
for the benefit of the public. Scientists have a right to see the
results of their work disseminated as quickly and broadly as possible,
and NIH is committed to helping our scientists exercise this right. We
urge publishers to work closely with authors in implementing this 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," Zerhouni added.
"NIH recognizes the importance of preserving quality peer review and the
viability of a diversity of publishing models. Nevertheless, we expect
that only in limited cases will authors deem it necessary to select the
longest delay period."

The NIH policy will achieve several important goals, including:

1. creating a stable archive of peer-reviewed research publications
resulting from NIH-funded studies to ensure the permanent preservation
of these vital research findings;

2. securing a searchable compendium of these research publications that
NIH and its awardees can use to manage more efficiently and to
understand better their research portfolios, monitor scientific
productivity, and, ultimately, help set research priorities; and

3. making published results of NIH-funded research more readily
accessible to the public, health care providers, educators, and scientists.

Beginning May 2, 2005, the policy requests that NIH-funded scientists
submit an electronic version of the author's final manuscript, upon
acceptance for publication, resulting from research supported in whole
or in part by NIH. The author's final manuscript is defined as the final
version accepted for journal publication, and includes all modifications
from the publishing peer review process.

The policy gives authors the flexibility to designate a specific time
frame for public release =97 ranging from immediate public access after
final publication to a 12 month delay =97 when they submit their
manuscripts to NIH. Authors are strongly encouraged to exercise their
right to specify that their articles will be publicly available through
PubMed Central (PMC) as soon as possible.

PMC (http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov), a part of the NIH's National
Library of Medicine (NLM), is the agency's digital repository of
full-text, peer-reviewed biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research
journals. It is a publicly-accessible, stable, permanent, and searchable
electronic archive.

The release of this policy follows months of intensive deliberations
with representatives of patient and scientific organizations,
researchers, and publishers. NIH posted the draft policy for public
comment in September, and received and reviewed over 6,000 public comments.

As part of on-going efforts to implement this new policy, NIH plans to
establish a Public Access Advisory Working Group, as a subgroup of the
NLM's Board of Regents. The Working Group will include representatives
of the patient advocacy, scientific, library, and publishing
communities, and will provide advice on implementation issues and assess
progress in meeting the new policy's stated goals.

Additional information on the new policy and related documents,
including a "Questions and Answers" fact sheet, can be found at:
http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm.