RE: NIH Public Access Mandate Passes Senate

["Rick Anderson" <rick.anderson@utah.edu>]

This is certainly good news and I don't want to throw a wet 
blanket on things -- but how likely is it that President Bush 
would sign this bill into law, assuming it gets through both 
houses with the requirement language intact?

---
Rick Anderson
Assoc. Dir. for Scholarly Resources & Collections
Marriott Library
University of Utah
rick.anderson@utah.edu
801-721-1687

> -----Original Message-----
> [mailto:owner-liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu] On Behalf Of
> Jennifer McLennan
> Sent: Wednesday, October 24, 2007 9:48 PM
> To: liblicense-l@lists.yale.edu
> Subject: NIH Public Access Mandate Passes Senate
>
> Alliance for Taxpayer Access
> www.taxpayeraccess.org
>
> For immediate release
> October 24, 2007
>
> Contact:
> Jennifer McLennan
> jennifer [at] arl [dot] org
> (202) 296-2296 ext. 121
>
> MANDATE FOR PUBLIC ACCESS TO NIH-FUNDED RESEARCH POISED TO BECOME
> LAW
>
> Full U.S. Senate Approves Bill Containing Support for Access To
> Taxpayer-Funded Research
>
> Washington, D.C. -- October 24, 2007 - The U.S. Senate last 
> night approved the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education 
> Appropriations Bill (S.1710), including a provision that 
> directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen 
> its Public Access Policy by requiring rather than requesting 
> participation by researchers. The bill will now be reconciled 
> with the House Appropriations Bill, which contains a similar 
> provision, in another step toward support for public access to 
> publicly funded research becoming United States law.
>
> "Last night's Senate action is a milestone victory for public 
> access to taxpayer-funded research," said Heather Joseph, 
> Executive Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and 
> Academic Resources Coalition, a founding member of the ATA). 
> "This policy sets the stage for researchers, patients, and the 
> general public to benefit in new and important ways from our 
> collective investment in the critical biomedical research 
> conducted by the NIH."
>
> Under a mandatory policy, NIH-funded researchers will be 
> required to deposit copies of eligible manuscripts into the 
> National Library of Medicine's online database, PubMed Central. 
> Articles will be made publicly available no later than 12 
> months after publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
>
> The current NIH Public Access Policy, first implemented in 
> 2005, is a voluntary measure and has resulted in a de deposit 
> rate of less than 5% by individual investigators. The advance 
> to a mandatory policy is the result of more than two years of 
> monitoring and evaluation by the NIH, Congress, and the 
> community.
>
> "We thank our Senators for taking action on this important 
> issue," said Pat Furlong, Founding President and CEO of Parent 
> Project Muscular Dystrophy. "This level of access to NIH-funded 
> research will impact the disease process in novel ways, 
> improving the ability of scientists to advance therapies and 
> enabling patients and their advocates to participate more 
> effectively. The advance is timely, much-needed, and -- we 
> anticipate -- an indication of increasingly enhanced access in 
> future."
>
> "American businesses will benefit tremendously from improved 
> access to NIH research," said William Kovacs, U.S. Chamber of 
> Commerce vice president for environment, technology and 
> regulatory affairs. "The Chamber encourages the free and timely 
> dissemination of scientific knowledge produced by the NIH as it 
> will improve both the public and industry's ability to become 
> better informed on developments that impact them -- and on 
> opportunities for innovation." The Chamber is the world's 
> largest business federation, representing more than three 
> million businesses of every size, sector, and region.
>
> "We welcome the NIH policy being made mandatory and thank 
> Congress for backing this important step," said Gary Ward, 
> Treasurer of the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB). 
> "Free and timely public access to scientific literature is 
> necessary to ensure that new discoveries are made as quickly as 
> feasible. It's the right thing to do, given that taxpayers fund 
> this research." The ASCB represents 11,000 members and 
> publishes the highly ranked peer-reviewed journal, Molecular 
> Biology of the Cell.
>
> Joseph added, "On behalf of the taxpayers, patients, 
> researchers, students, libraries, universities, and businesses 
> that pressed this bill forward with their support over the past 
> two years, the ATA thanks Congress for throwing its weight 
> behind the success of taxpayer access to taxpayer-funded 
> research."
>
> Negotiators from the House and Senate are expected to meet to 
> reconcile their respective bills this fall. The final, 
> consolidated bill will have to pass the House and the Senate 
> before being delivered to the President at the end of the year.
>
> ###