[sdpd] Voice your support for the NIH Public Access Policy

["Helen Doyle" <alb...@cristal.org> (by way of Armel Le Bail <alb...@cristal.org>)]

Dear Colleague,

As you may know, the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) recently 
proposed an ?Enhanced Public Access Policy? that will, if adopted, increase 
the availability of the research findings funded by NIH. The plan would 
require that all articles resulting from NIH-funded studies be made freely 
available to the public no later than six months after publication, through 
the National Library of Medicine?s centralized archive of full-text 
literature, PubMed Central (PMC).

Many members of the publishing industry have been critical of the pending 
move, fearing a negative impact on their subscription revenues if they 
release even a subset of the articles they publish (those funded by NIH) to 
PMC.  But many others, including quite a few prominent scientists and 
journal editors, support NIH?s prospective action to increase access to 
important biomedical discoveries.
.
Your perspective and experience both as a supporter of open access and as a 
scientist who conducts research and publishes, reviews, edits, and reads 
articles is critically relevant to NIH as it considers the pros and cons of 
moving forward with its plan.  For that reason, we urge you to submit a 
comment on the issue using this 
link: 
<http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm>http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm.

At the bottom of this email are some ideas you might incorporate into your 
statement.  Please note that it is important that you indicate your 
institutional affiliation and position and craft a unique comment ? better 
to be brief and specific than long and wordy.  Comments from scientists 
outside the US are extremely valuable, too.

More information about the policy is available at 
<http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm>http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm. 
Notable statements of support for the plan include:
    * An open letter to the US Congress signed by 25 Nobel Laureates: 
<http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/bof.html>http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/bof.html. 

    * The Council of the National Academy of Sciences: 
<http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/s09162004?OpenDocument>http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/s09162004?OpenDocument. 

    * The Alliance for Taxpayer Access (site provides up-to-date 
information about the policy): 
<http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/>http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/

Ideas you might include in your comment:

-- Unrestricted dissemination of your articles via PubMed Central can 
increase the impact and visibility of your work; recent studies have shown 
that articles that are available without subscriptions or other financial 
barriers are cited more frequently and appropriately than those that are 
not (Antelman, K., ?Do Open Access Articles Have a Greater Research 
Impact?? College and Research Libraries, Sept. 2004).  Due to the rising 
subscription costs libraries face, many of your colleagues and virtually 
all members of the public can?t access your papers. [From 1998-2003, the 
average price of an academic journal increased at more than five times the 
rate of inflation, according to a United Kingdom Parliamentary Committee?s 
findings.]

-- The proposed NIH policy will not put you in conflict with journal 
policies - many publishers already deposit their articles in PMC 
voluntarily, some, like PLoS Biology and PLoS Medicine, immediately upon 
publication, others with a delay of two to twelve months or more. None have 
seen any decline in their subscription bases, although some have seen 
evidence of increased interest in their journals (see 
<http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/archive/?page=features&issue=6>http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/archive/?page=features&issue=6) 


-- The proposed NIH policy accommodates a variety of publishing models and 
favors none - it simply states that the NIH, as a federal funding agency 
supported by the taxpayers, is committed to sharing the results of the 
research it supports with the public.

The comment period is open until November 16, 2004.  Thanks very much in 
advance for your support of open access!

Helen Doyle, Ph.D.
Director of Development and Strategic Alliances
Public Library of Science



------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> 
$9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/UIYolB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~-> 

 
Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
    http://groups.yahoo.com/group/sdpd/

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
    sdpd-unsubscribe...@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
    http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/