Peter Suber on NIH Mandate Misconceptions

From: Stevan Harnad <harnad_at_ecs.soton.ac.uk>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2008 09:08:55 -0400

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Below is Peter Suber's excellent summary table (excerpted from his
original article in Open Medicine), listing (and correcting) the most
common misconceptions about the NIH Green Open Access Self-Archiving
Mandate. 

Note especially the update addendum at the end: NIH's is indeed
an Immediate Deposit (IDOA) Mandate (what Peter calls a Dual
Deposit-Release Mandate). (I.e., it is not a delayed-deposit
mandate.)

Peter also corrects the common error about locus of deposit: the
deposit needs to be made in PubMed Central, not in PubMed. 

[I would add, however, that it would be infinitely better for
worldwide OA if NIH's stipulated locus for the direct deposit were
the fundee's own Institutional Repository (from which it could simply
be harvested/imported/exported to PubMed Central). That would help
enormously to integrate and universalize all Green OA Self-Archiving
Mandates, systematically scaling them up to all institutions
worldwide, covering all research output, funded and unfunded, across
all disciplines, in a convergent, mutually reinforcing synergy.]

____________________________________________________________________________
      More on the OA mandate at the NIH

      Peter Suber, An open access mandate for the National
      Institutes of Health, Open Medicine, April 16, 2008. 
      Also PDF. 

Table 1: Common misconceptions about the new NIH open access policy
Fiction
Fact
The mandate is to publish in open access journals.The mandate is to
deposit in an open access repository (PubMed Central).
The mandate is to bypass journals and peer review.The mandate is to
provide open access to articles already published in peer-reviewed
journals.
The mandate applies to the published version of articles.The mandate
applies to the final versions of the authors? peer-reviewed
manuscripts.
The mandate directs deposits to PubMed.The mandate directs deposits
to PubMed Central.
The mandate requires a 12-month embargo on the copy in PubMed
Central.The mandate permits an embargo of up to 12 months on the copy
in PubMed Central.
The new NIH budget is US$29 million.The new NIH budget is US$29
billion.
The new mandate will last for only 1 year.The new mandate will last
indefinitely.
The mandate requires violation of copyright law.The mandate requires
compliance with copyright law.
      Peter Suber:  This table is based on the most common
      misconceptions I'd heard in the first month after the
      policy's adoption.  Now I'd add at least one more.  

      Fiction:  The policy requires deposit at the end of the
      embargo period.  

      Fact:  The policy requires deposit immediately upon
      acceptance for publication.
Received on Thu Apr 17 2008 - 14:16:43 BST