[OWW-SC] Open access in the new funding bill

[Tom Knight]

Open-Access Provision Tucked Into Omnibus Spending Bill
December 21, 2007
By a GenomeWeb staff reporter
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NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) ? Tucked away in a small section of the 
massive omnibus budget bill that bounced around Capitol Hill this week, 
as members of the House and Senate fought over funding for wars in Iraq 
and in Afghanistan, is a very brief paragraph that would require 
research findings from studies funded by the National Institutes of 
Health to be made publicly available within a year.
?
The language of the law is summed up in only about 70 words of the 
roughly 1,400 page fiscal spending bill, which folds together the 2008 
budgets for much of the US Federal Government, and is little more than 
an afterthought politically as the White House scans the bill for 
places to trim what it has termed ?irresponsible? spending.
?
While the debates in Washington this week have been about war funding, 
fiscal discipline, and taxes, for academics and other scientists 
looking to keep abreast of federally funded biomedical research, and 
for the publishers of academic journals, this little mandate may hit 
closest to home.
?
The law states that NIH-funded investigators submit electronic versions 
of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts to the National Library of 
Medicine?s PubMed Central so that the studies may be made publicly 
available no later than twelve months after publication.
?
The legislation has been revived several times. It was introduced in 
2006 by Senator John Cornyn (R - Tex.) and by Senator Joseph Lieberman 
(I-Conn.), and it has received strong support from interest groups, 
academics, and those lobbying for greater openness for tax-funded 
enterprises. But it has been opposed by groups representing the 
publishers of academic journals.
?
The Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 originally went farther 
than the current law would, as it aimed to make all taxpayer-funded 
research from agencies spending over $100 million that is not stamped 
classified available to the public. Another bill, which was focused on 
the NIH, had a six-month deadline for public availability.
?
The added six months in the new legislation was meant to be an 
accommodation to the publishing industry, which had fought the 
legislation.
?
But the new waiting period of up to one year is consistent with current 
NIH policy, which encourages researchers to deposit their articles with 
PubMed no later than twelve months after publication.
?
?The public is entitled to fast and free access to the scientific 
articles reporting on the results of research conducted using public 
funds,? Heather Joseph, executive director of the Scholarly Publishing 
and Academic Resources Coalition, wrote in an e-mail interview with 
GenomeWeb Daily News.
?
Public access increases the usage of research publications, Joseph 
added, which in turn ?accelerates the return on the public's investment 
in research ? by stimulating further discovery and innovation, and 
advancing the translation of this knowledge into direct public 
benefits.?
?
President Bush said yesterday he has asked his budget director, Jim 
Nussle, to review the omnibus bill to look for areas where spending can 
be trimmed. That hunt for cost cuts may not have any effect on the 
open-access law, as the bill does not budget any specific funds to 
support the legislation.

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