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On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 12:01 PM, Stacie Lemick <stacie_at_arl.org>
wrote:
For immediate release
March 12, 2009
Contact:
Jennifer McLennan
jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
(202) 296-2296 ext. 121
first u.s. public access policy made permanent
2009 Consolidated Appropriations Act ensures NIH public
access policy will persist
Washington, D.C. ? March 12, 2009 ? President Obama
yesterday signed into law the 2009 Consolidated
Appropriations Act, which includes a provision making the
National Institutes? of Health (NIH) Public Access Policy
permanent. The NIH Revised Policy on Enhancing Public
Access requires eligible NIH-funded researchers to
deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed
manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine?s
online archive, PubMed Central (PMC). Full texts of the
articles are made publicly available and searchable
online in PMC no later than 12 months after publication
in a journal.
The NIH policy was previously implemented with a
provision that was subject to annual renewal. Since the
implementation of the revised policy the percentage of
eligible manuscripts deposited into PMC has increased
significantly, with over 3,000 new manuscripts being
deposited each month. The PubMed Central database is a
part of a valuable set of public database resources at
the NIH, which are accessed by more than 2 million users
each day.
The new provision reads in full:
The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall
require in the current fiscal year and thereafter that
all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have
submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's
PubMed Central an electronic version of their final,
peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication
to be made publicly available no later than 12 months
after the official date of publication: Provided, That
the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a
manner consistent with copyright law.
?This is a significant moment for all of us in the
health community, and for efforts in health reform. With
free access to health research, individuals are empowered
with the knowledge necessary to understand the health
threats they and their families face,? said Sharon Terry,
President and CEO of Genetic Alliance. ?Congress
recognizes the incredible power of technology and
innovation in enabling new solutions for the proactive
management of health, consumer-driven healthcare, and
novel partnerships and collaborations in research.
Congratulations to us all.?
The NIH Public Access Policy addresses the public?s
growing need for high-quality health information and
promotes accelerated scientific advancement in the
biomedical sciences.
"Public access to publicly funded research contributes
directly to the mission of higher education,? said David
Shulenburger, Vice President for Academic Affairs at
NASULGC (the National Association of State Universities
and Land-Grant Colleges). ?Improved 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.?
Heather Joseph, spokesperson for the Alliance for
Taxpayer Access noted, ?Thanks to the work of a wide
coalition of patients, libraries, researchers,
publishers, students, and taxpayers, the results of
NIH-funded research can be accessed ? and used - in ways
never before possible. The successful implementation of
this policy will unlock the potential of this research to
benefit the public as a whole. ?
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.
###
The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of
patient, academic, research, and publishing organizations
that supports open public access to the results of
federally funded research. The Alliance was formed in
2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from
taxpayer-funded research become fully accessible and
available online at no extra cost to the American public.
Details on the ATA may be found at
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.
Received on Thu Mar 12 2009 - 17:55:25 GMT