RE: NIH policy, information about

["Helen Doyle" <hdoyle@plos.org>]

In response to Ann Okerson's query about communication to researchers
about the NIH Public Access Policy, I thought I would share a message we
sent last week to PLoS supporters.  I believe NIH Director Elias Zerhouni
also recently sent a letter describing the policy and its implementation
plan to NIH grantees.

**************************
Helen J. Doyle, Ph.D.
Director of Development and Strategic Alliances
Public Library of Science
185 Berry Street, Suite 1300
San Francisco, CA  94107
(415) 624-1217  phone
(415) 546-4090  fax
hdoyle@plos.org
www.plos.org
*********************

Mailed electronically to PLoS Supporters
02/17/05

To the PLoS Community: 

The U.S. National Institutes of Health recently announced its
long-anticipated "Public Access Policy," designed to make the results of
NIH-funded research freely available online. As of May 2005, the agency
will request that all NIH grantees deposit copies of all papers arising
from NIH-funded research in PubMed Central (PMC), the National Library of
Medicine's online library of scientific and medical literature. These
articles will then be made freely available and fully searchable through
PMC within 12 months of publication. (More information about the policy is
available at http://www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm)

PLoS welcomes this announcement. It is an important step for those of us
who believe that the results of publicly funded scientific and medical
research can and should be made freely available to researchers and the
public. However, because of the way the NIH has structured this policy,
successful implementation will depend upon the supportive actions of
NIH-funded researchers.

Under the NIH'S Public Access Policy, grantees are requested to send a
copy of every manuscript describing NIH-supported work to PMC immediately
upon acceptance by a peer-reviewed journal. The manuscripts will be
formatted for online display, and made freely available through PMC at a
time specified by the author. Clearly it would be ideal if there were no
delay between publication by the journal and posting in PMC, so that all
scientists and the public would have immediate access to NIH-funded
research. This is the case for articles published in all PLoS or other
open-access journals. However, authors who publish in most other journals
may be pressured to delay public posting of their articles or not to post
them at all. This pressure must be resisted.

It is critically important that all of us do everything we can to make
sure this new system succeeds. Technically, submission of articles to PMC
is voluntary, and the policy allows a delay of up to 12 months. However,
it is clear that the NIH, Members of Congress, and the public desire and
expect full participation. If we fail to meet these expectations, it could
undermine the existing broad public and legislative support for scientific
research at a time when such support is especially vital.

We therefore urge everyone who receives this message to make your
NIH-funded articles available in PMC immediately upon publication.  This
can be accomplished in either of two ways:

(a) Publish your papers in open-access journals that already deposit their
papers in PMC and make them immediately and freely available.

(b) If you publish in non open-access journals, deposit your manuscripts
in PMC and exercise your right to stipulate that they be posted online
immediately upon publication.

Please share this message with your colleagues and urge them to help
foster the success of the new policy.  We would be happy to answer any
questions, and we again thank you for your attention to and support of
Open Access.

Harold Varmus
Patrick Brown
Michael Eisen
PLoS Founders