AAP Cautiously Supports NIH Free Access Policy

by Calvin Reid -- Publishers Weekly, 3/21/2005

Despite its earlier protests against it, the Association of American Publishers has decided to make peace with a new policy implemented by the National Institutes of Health that will make government-funded research available for free to the public.

In a statement, the AAP noted that it was still concerned that the new public access policy may compete with commercial publishers by offering "redundant versions" of published information. But the AAP noted that the NIH had "responded to the concerns of publishers and the research community" by offering "voluntary choice and flexibility with respect to participation." The AAP said that it will work with the NIH to "monitor the execution and impact of the new policy."

Under the new policy (News, Feb. 14), authors who have received NIH funding are asked to digitally submit their completed peer-reviewed manuscripts to the NIH for posting on its PubMed Central Web site within the 12 months following scheduled publication.

While STM publishers are worried that the policy will undermine commercial scientific publishing, librarians are calling for free and complete access to the results of publicly funded research.

In a conference call with analysts about the company's financial results, John Wiley CEO Will Pesce said that the new NIH policy "is a better outcome than the original proposal."