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SPECIAL UPDATE: Public Access to Federally Funded
Scientific Research
(Posted 10-26-04)
This update was originally sent out as an e-mail message to AGI's
member societies.
IN A NUTSHELL: The way science is disseminated appears to
be about to change dramatically, possibly altering fundamentally the
way scientific results are vetted and distributed. Both Congress and
the Administration are advancing the idea that any U.S. citizen should
have free and open access to research funded with tax dollars. Each
is proposing, legislating or advocating that the National Institutes
of Health lead the way into this uncharted territory by requiring
that all final manuscripts produced with NIH dollars be submitted
to a government-run online information storehouse that will be freely
accessible to the public six months after initial publication. Though
specific right now to NIH-related activities, the results may well
represent models by which all federally-funded research may need to
adhere in the future, largely at the discretion of the funding agencies,
and not necessarily with the power of Law.
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In recent years a movement toward "open access" to scholarly
publications has been building momentum fueled by the high costs of
scholarly journals, budget cuts and the technological advances that
make information distribution incredibly efficient. Open access means
anyone can access literature that is digital, online, free of charge,
and free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
This momentum has been gaining steam throughout the rest of the world,
especially in Europe and Australia. In the United States, the National
Institutes of Health (NIH) has been spearheading the move toward open
distribution of federally-funded research. The movement dates back
to 1998 but only recently has come to the forefront as an active policy
initiative. In 2003, Representative Sabo (D-MN) introduced a bill
to exclude the research funded substantially by federal agencies from
copyright. Opposition to the bill was quick and it has languished
in Committee for the past two years; however, a new version of the
idea has surfaced and is advancing rapidly.
On September 9, 2004 the House of Representatives approved the FY2005
Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Appropriations bill.
Accompanying this bill was a report issued by the subcommittee. Traditionally,
reports that accompany appropriations bills are non-binding because
they are not law; however, most agencies pay very close attention
to their contents. This report contained language about PubMed Central,
an online storehouse of life science articles maintained by the National
Library of Medicine (NLM).
The Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee commented
on PubMed Central by saying, "The Committee is very concerned
that there is insufficient public access to reports and data resulting
from NIH-funded research. This situation, which has been exacerbated
by the dramatic rise in scientific journal subscription prices, is
contrary to the best interests of the U.S. taxpayers who paid for
this research. The Committee is aware of a proposal to make the complete
text of articles and supplemental materials generated by NIH-funded
research available on PubMed Central (PMC), the digital library maintained
by the National Library of Medicine (NLM). The Committee supports
this proposal and recommends that NIH develop a policy, to apply from
FY 2005 forward, requiring that a complete electronic copy of any
manuscript reporting work supported by NIH grants or contracts be
provided to PMC upon acceptance of the manuscript for publication
in any scientific journal listed in the NLM's PubMed directory. Under
this proposal, NLM would commence making these reports, together with
supplemental materials, freely and continuously available six months
after publication, or immediately in cases in which some or all of
the publication costs are paid with NIH grant funds. For this purpose,
`publication costs' would include fees charged by a publisher, such
as color and page charges, or fees for digital distribution. NIH is
instructed to submit a report to the Committee by December 1, 2004
about how it intends to implement this policy, including how it will
ensure the reservation of rights by the NIH grantee, if required,
to permit placement of the article in PMC and to allow appropriate
public uses of this literature."
The Senate's version of the bill and the accompanying report, which
were approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee on September
15th, contained no such language.
On the heels of this report, NIH published a notice of intent and
request for comments in the Federal Register on September 17th. The
notice details NIH's plans to enhance public access to NIH health-related
research information. NIH proposes to have all grantees and supported
Principal Investigators provide the NIH with electronic copies of
final manuscripts that have been peer-reviewed, modified and readied
for publication. According to the notice, NIH will archive these manuscripts
in PubMed Central and each will be made freely available to the public
six months after publication. If the publisher agrees, the manuscript
may be made freely available sooner. The NIH is encouraging persons,
groups and organizations to comment on its intentions and proposal
by logging onto http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm.
Alternately, comments may be e-mailed to PublicAccess@nih.gov or sent
via U.S. postal mail to NIH Public Access Comments, National Institutes
of Health, Office of Extramural Research, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Room
350, Bethesda, MD 20892-7963. Comments must be received on or before
November 16, 2004.
Scientists have an opportunity to weigh in with their Congressman,
Senator and the NIH prior to the November 16th deadline and let them
know how these changes would affect their research, their department,
their professional society and the journal to which they most often
submit papers.
There are a lot of questions yet to be answered in the wake of NIH's
announcement. With the open access model in place, most publishers
believe that journals would be forced to recover the cost of publication
by levying author fees. This is known as the author-pays model and
some publishers doubt this is an effective or efficient way to recover
costs; others predict outright failure and bankruptcy for many not-for-profit
journal publishers.
Under this system, NIH would incur the cost of publishing the research
it supports. Not only would taxpayers be paying for an online archive
that would cost untold sums to maintain, but an author-pays system
would introduce an inherent, structural conflict of interest into
the peer-review process. The integrity of research could be, and some
would say must be, questioned if the author submitting that research
for evaluation and eventual publication is also the journal's source
of income.
All scientists are standing at the crossroads of our profession -
the intersection of the quest for knowledge and the dissemination
thereof. We encourage you to weigh in with the decision makers on
this issue prior to the November 16th deadline.
More information about public access to federally funded scientific
research is available at http://www.agiweb.org/gap/legis108/public_access.html.
Special update prepared by Emily Lehr Wallace, AGI Government Affairs
Program.
Sources: Thomas Legislative Database; Federal Register.
Please send any comments or requests for information to the AGI
Government Affairs Program.
Posted October 26, 2004
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