Susan Morrissey, Database Deadlock, Chemical and Engineering News, September 14, 2005. Excerpt:
After months of high-level correspondence, the National Institutes of Health and the American Chemical Society do not appear to be any closer to finding a mutually acceptable agreement regarding the scope of the agency’s [open-access] chemical database PubChem, which ACS argues will duplicate its [toll-access] Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) Registry. In an exchange of letters last month, ACS President William F. Carroll and NIH Director Elias A. Zerhouni proposed possible options for an amenable solution that would allow NIH to retain the intent of the database while leveraging existing private-sector chemical databases. Neither side has yet to agree to the other’s proposal, although both sides tell C&EN they remain committed to working out a solution....In a push to have this public policy issue addressed, ACS has taken its case to Congress. And as Carroll notes, both the House and Senate appropriations bills include language that urges NIH to avoid unnecessary duplication and competition; he adds that “we believe our offer constitutes a good platform for doing so.” For its part, NIH has countered the ACS proposal with one of its own. The six-part plan includes an opportunity for CAS to work with NIH to “validate or assign registry numbers for all PubChem structures.” In return, NIH would provide “reasonable financial compensation.” Also in the proposed plan is the formation of a new working group of outside chemical information providers and users to advise NIH on PubChem’s development. NIH has already moved to set up such a group by issuing a Federal Register notice earlier this month (C&EN, Sept. 12, page 27).
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/15/2005 09:27:00 AM.
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.
