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 Printable Version
Letter to Senate Appropriations Committee
Requesting Evaluation of NIH Public Access Policy
July 7, 2005
Senator Arlen Specter
United States Senate
711 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator Specter:
The undersigned nonprofit organizations that publish journals are
long-term supporters of providing public access to medical and scientific
information. Nevertheless, we have significant concerns about the
National Institutes of Health duplicating private sector on-line publishing
through the implementation of a new policy that took effect on May
2, 2005. Of further concern, is language included in the House Labor,
HHS Appropriations Bill for 2006 Committee Report that prejudges the
value of this policy and calls for more aggressive action to maximize
participation. Our organizations are concerned that a full evaluation
of the costs and impact of the NIH policy on private sector publishing
has not occurred and therefore we seek the inclusion of language in
the Senate Committee Report to accompany its FY 2006 Labor, HHS Appropriations
Bill directing NIH to provide cost information and to determine the
current availability of NIH research articles through existing private
sector services. This evaluation by the Committee should be a prerequisite
to implementation of any further NIH publication policy.
Effective May 2, 2005, the NIH requested that its grantees deposit
research articles accepted for publication by a peer-reviewed journal
to a database known as PubMed Central, which is a component of the
National Library of Medicine (NLM). The new NIH policy instructs grantees
to designate how soon the manuscript should be released to the public;
but no later than one year after journal publication.
The leading journals in many medical and scientific fields are published
by nonprofit societies. These journals provide independent peer review,
as well as careful editing and composition of manuscripts, printing,
and web hosting. These services entail significant human resources
and costs. Nonprofit publishers reinvest income derived from journal
publication into improvements in scientific publishing and supporting
science through meetings, research grants, scholarships and education.
Nonprofit publishers have kept their journals affordable, and with
the advent of electronic publishing, most now also provide free public
access to articles within 12 months of publication. These articles
are available today through links from NIH's existing MedLine database
to the journals' websites.
Given Federal budget constraints, every effort should be made to
avoid establishing a federally administered and funded program that
would duplicate private sector publishing activities, particularly
one that may undermine the activities of nonprofit peer-reviewed journal.
Rather than create a publication/distribution system for articles
already available in the private sector from nonprofit publishers,
NIH should use its limited resources to carry out its prime mission
of funding biomedical research.
Further, we are skeptical about the wisdom and appropriateness of
a federal agency entering into the scholarly publishing industry,
in competition with and possibly to the ultimate detriment of non-profit
private sector publishers.
A more thorough assessment of the necessity of establishing a database
of NIH funded research manuscripts in light of the availability of
research articles through private sector databases and journal websites
is needed. The undersigned organizations ask that you include language
in the Committee Report for the FY 2006 Labor-HHS Appropriations Bill
requesting that NIH provide information on the costs of carrying out
its policy and the availability of NIH research articles through journal
websites so that the Committee can fully evaluate the necessity of
the NIH policy.
Thank you for your consideration. If you have any questions or would
like more information, please contact Mila Becker, Director of Government
Relations & Practice at the American Society of Hematology at
mbecker@hematology.org or 202-292-0264.
Sincerely,
American Association for Cancer Research
American Association for Clinical Chemistry
American Association for Dental Research
American Chemical Society
American College of Chest Physicians
American College of Physicians
American Dairy Science Association
American Dental Education Association
American Geological Institute
American Geriatrics Society
American Institute of Biological Sciences
American Psychiatric Association
American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
American Society for Clinical Nutrition
American Society for Investigative Pathology
American Society for Nutritional Sciences
American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics
American Society of Agronomy
American Society of Animal Science
American Society of Hematology
American Society of Nephrology
American Society of Plant Biologists
American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
American Thoracic Society
Association for Molecular Pathology
Biophysical Society
Botanical Society of America
Crop Science Society of America
Entomological Society of America
Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology
Federation of European Biochemical Societies
Health Affairs
HighWire Press of the Stanford University Library
Infectious Diseases Society of America
Ornithological Council
Poultry Science Association
Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine
Society for Leukocyte Biology
Society for the Study of Reproduction
Society of Surgical Oncology
Society of Toxicology
Society of Toxicologic Pathology
Soil Science Society of America
The American Association of Immunologists
The American Physiological Society
The Association for Research in Vision and Ophthalmology
The Endocrine Society
The Histochemical Society
The Physiological Society
The Protein Society
The Rockefeller University Press
cc: Bettilou Taylor
Please send any comments or requests for information to AGI Government Affairs Program.
Posted July 27, 2004
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