[Ip-health] KEI Letter to US Senate re FY 2008 Labor/HHS Appropriations Bill

[Manon Ress]

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Knowledge Ecology International
1621 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 500
Washington, D.C. 20009
Tel: (202) 332-2670
Contact:  Manon Ress
manon.ress@keionline.org


United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510

July 13, 2007

Dear Senator:

We are writing to urge the Senate to approve provisions in the FY
2008 Labor/HHS Appropriations Bill that direct the National Institute
of Health to implement a mandatory obligation to provide free and
timely access to research articles resulting from NIH-funded
research.  Specifically, the bill would require researchers to
provide copies of NIH funded research articles to the National
Library of Medicine's online archive.

The public, including the taxpayers who pay for the research, would
then have access to the published findings.   The expanded access
will be particularly important to scientists, small business-owners,
physicians and clinicians, patients, students and educators.

Some peer-reviewed medical papers are already available online and
are of great benefit to doctors in informing treatment decisions and
providing patients and their family and friends with invaluable tools
that better inform and empower them. However, the vast majority of
papers supported with taxpayer funding are not available.

NIH's policy now calls for the voluntary deposit of articles in the
online archive.    The deposit rate for individual researchers is
less than five percent.  The voluntary approach has failed to protect
the public=92s interest in obtaining access to the research.

A mandate will ensure the public has access to all NIH funded
research.  Please support the mandate that extends to all research
papers that benefited from NIH funding.

Sincerely,


James Love and Dr. Manon Ress
Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)