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New Law Enacted
- President Obama signs NIH Public Access Policy into law
On March 11, 2009, President Obama signed the 2009 Consolidated Appropriations Bill into law, which includes a provision making the NIH Public Access Policy permanent. Previously, the NIH policy was subject to annual renewal.
- Congress Makes Mandatory the Revised NIH Public Access Policy (effective April 7, 2008)
On December 26, 2007, the FY 2008 appropriations bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies became law.
This new law requires the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to make mandatory its voluntary policy on “Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH- Funded Research” (“NIH Public Access Policy”)
The law states, in relevant part:
“The Director of the NIH shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the NLM’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.”
NIH issued a Notice explaining the new mandatory policy on January 11,
2008. See NIH
“Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publication
Resulting from NIH-Funded Research” (NOT-OD-08-033)
- What does the new law
require?
As of April 7, 2008, NIH will require submission into PubMed Central (PMC)
of manuscripts, if accepted for publication, which report research that is
funded in whole or in part by the NIH.
Authors publishing in The Journal of Immunology (The JI) may find answers
to their questions
below. If you still have questions regarding publishing in The JI, please
contact infoji@aai.org.
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AAI Concerns/Position
- Does AAI have any
concerns about the new law?
AAI is concerned that the NIH Public Access Policy will cause confusion of
the scientific record as multiple versions of articles are published (the
manuscript by PubMed Central and the final
edited article by the publishing journal).
The Policy implements a costly new system which will divert funding from
research.
It will create an inferior archive (containing only NIH-funded research,
rather than all published research) at the expense of NIH research
dollars.
- AAI’s position:
AAI remains committed to making The JI’s content publicly available as
soon as possible, and
will continue to expand current services.
AAI has developed policies to help authors publishing in The JI comply
with the NIH Public
Access Policy, and has provided
Frequently Asked Questions to help
affected authors comply.
AAI greatly appreciates that Congress has required NIH to “implement the
public access policy
in a manner consistent with copyright law….” and hopes to be able to work
with the NIH to
ensure that the copyright rights of publishers are protected.
Congress should require NIH to partner with not-for-profit scientific
publishers to provide
enhanced public access to NIH-funded research results and abandon this
expensive effort to
publish manuscripts itself (this NIH effort diverts funds from research
and duplicates services
already provided cost-effectively, quickly, and well by the private
sector).
•
See
Comments of the AAI Regarding the Implementation of the NIH Public Access
Policy (3/14/08)
•
See
Comments of the AAI In Response to the NIH Request for Information: NIH
Public Access Policy (NOT-OD-08-060 – March 28, 2008) May 30, 2008
On March 18, 2008, AAI sent letters to the Chairs and Ranking Members of
the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees on Labor, Health and
Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies (Labor-HHS) [Chairman Tom
Harkin (D-IA) and Ranking Member Arlen Specter (R-PA), and Chairman David
Obey (D-7th, WI) and Ranking Member Jim Walsh (R-25th, NY)] requesting
they include language in the FY 2009 Labor-HHS appropriations bill
regarding the cost of implementing the new mandatory NIH Public Access
Policy
•
See letter to
Senate Labor-HHS Ranking Member Arlen Specter (3/18/08)
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On December 9, 2009, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy issued a Request for Information (RFI) in the Federal Register requesting "input from the community regarding enhancing public access to archived publications resulting from research funded by Federal science and technology agencies."
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AAI submitted comments in response to the RFI on January 21, 2010.
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Related Legislation
- On September 9, 2008, Rep. John Conyers, Jr. (D-14th, MI), Chair of the House Judiciary Committee, introduced legislation to help ensure that the federal government does not diminish copyright protections for peer reviewed articles and the publications in which they appear. The bill was reintroduced in the 111th Congress on February 3, 2009, as H.R. 801.
- See H.R. 801, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act
- AAI co-signed a letter (along with other leading publishers) to Representatives Conyers, Darrell Issa (R-49th, CA), Robert Wexler (D-19th, FL), and Tom Feeney (R-24th, FL) (the original cosponsors of the bill) to express our strong support for this legislation.
- On June 25, 2009, Senator Joseph Lieberman (I-CT) introduced S. 1373, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009. The following April, Congressman Michael Doyle (D-14th, PA) introduced a House companion bill, H.R. 5037. Both bills would require that final manuscripts of peer-reviewed, private-sector journal articles which report on federally-funded research be made freely available on government-run websites no later than six months after publication.
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