Re: Results of the NIH Plan

["Peter Banks" <pbanks@diabetes.org>]

Heather:

We deal with clinical medicine. That includes publishing drug dosages,
reference ranges for clinical tests, etc. I have no intention of
humiliating authors. I do intend to warn the public that the ADA cannot
attest to the accuracy of details in the version of the manuscript over
which we have no control. This is not to say that the author is careless,
intentionally or otherwise. It is to acknowledge that manuscript
submission and file conversion is imperfect and to warn the reader that no
copyeditor or proofreader has double checked the information in the
post-print.

It would be negligent to do anything to the contrary--and I frankly think
it is irresponsible of any institutional repository not to include such
disclaimers. I think it would be wise to consult an attorney before
embarking on the reckless course your endorse. We have absolutely no
intention of changing ADA's disclaimer.

I posted our data as one anecdotal case study, and I do not pretend it is
anything more than that. I hope other publishers will add their
experience, and that scholarly publishing societies can rigorously analyze
the data.

I would point out, however, that our preliminary data is consistent with
NIH's own (see: http://www.nihms.nih.gov/).  If anything, it appears that
compliance is decreasing, not increasing. There are a few spikes in
submissions, which probably represent authors dumping older papers, but
interest in the project seems to have dwindled in recent months.

Peter

>>> Heather Morrison <heatherm@eln.bc.ca> 09/15/05 3:13 PM >>>

Thanks, Peter -

Your instructions for authors, on the URL you list below, says:

[snip]

Post-prints must include the following statement of provenance and, once
the final version has been published in the journal, a link to the final
published version of the paper on the journal's Web site: "This is an
author-created, uncopyedited electronic version of an article accepted for
publication in Diabetes (http:// diabetes.diabetesjournals.org). The
American Diabetes Association (ADA), publisher of Diabetes, is not
responsible for any errors or omissions in this version of the manuscript
or any version derived from it by third parties. The definitive
publisher-authenticated version is available online at [URL]." The version
of the manuscript deposited or posted must be identical to the final
accepted version, with the exception of the above statement. Please note
that authors are not permitted to deposit, post, or later substitute the
final published version of the manuscript for the post- print.

[snip]

If authors are reluctant to post articles with this message in PMC, could
it be because they consider it humiliating to have to add this statement?

If ADA is interested in a sincere experiment to find out whether authors
are interested in complying with the NIH policy, then it is essential to
ensure that authors have a final copy which does not require any such
statement.

Can you provide a copy of the acceptance letter as well?  If you are
presenting this as scientific data, you need to present your methodology.

best -

Heather Morrison