New NIH-Access Policy Creates Controversy, Unhappiness

by Calvin Reid, PW NewsLine -- Publishers Weekly, 2/7/2005

The National Institutes of Health officially announced plans this week to provide free online public access to all NIH-funded research, eliciting a strong private response from critics and a cautious response from the Association of American Publishers .

Under the new policy, scientists who have received NIH funding are "requested" to provide a digital copy of their peer reviewed research papers to the NIH for posting on PubMed Central, an online NIH archive, within 12 months following the materials' scheduled publication date.

The move has evoked vigorous passion on both sides. Publishers oppose the idea of making NIH-funded material available for free, with academic and research librarians, who complain about the rising cost of journals and making taxpayers pay twice for the same material strongly in favor.

But the AAP, perhaps mindful of its aggressive stance in the past, took a cautious approach this time. Barbara Meredith, v-p of the AAP's professional and scholarly publishing division, said in a prepared statement that the new NIH policy, "left a number of open questions and we remain concerned about some aspects of the policy." Meredith said the AAP will be "carefully reviewing the final adopted policy in order to fully consider its implications for our publishing activities."