Last year Congress asked the National Library of Medicine (a division of the NIH) to write a report on "potential remedies" to the problem of "restricted access to vital research information":
Restrictions on access to research data. --The Committee is concerned by reports that there has been a significant change in the availability of research data internationally and a dramatic rise in medical research data subscription costs. NLM is encouraged to examine how the consolidation of for-profit biomedical research publishers, with their increased subscription charges, has restricted access to vital research information to not-for-profit libraries. The Committee would like a report by March 1, 2004, about potential remedies to ensure that taxpayer-funded research remains in the public domain and steps that can be taken to alleviate this restrictive trend in information technology.
NIH supports the widespread availability of the results of the research it funds through a variety of mechanisms and publishing channels. PubMed Central serves as a trusted repository for long term electronic access to the biomedical literature and provides a key component of the infrastructure needed to support open access. NIH grant policies that foster sharing of research findings, permit use of grant funds to pay for publication costs, and emphasize high quality research as the basis for evaluating professional success contribute substantially to achieving the goals of open access. NIH will continue to pursue policies and support a variety of publication mechanisms that ensure that the public interest in advancing research, improving health, and achieving an effective return on federal investments is served.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/23/2004 11:35:00 PM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
