[Oa-italia] Fwd: NIH Public Access Mandate Passes Senate

[mcassell a unito.it]

Inoltro alla lista questo comunicato relativo all'approvazione da parte del Senato degli Stati Uniti
di un disegno di legge che rederebbe obbligatorio l'accesso aperto ai risultati della ricerca
scientifica prodotta con fondi dei National Institutes of Health attraverso il deposito in PubMed
Central. Viene mantenuto pero' l'embargo dei 12 mesi.
Saluti
MC

----- Messaggio inoltrato da Jennifer McLennan <jennifer a arl.org> -----
    Data: Wed, 24 Oct 2007 23:48:20 EDT
    Da: Jennifer McLennan <jennifer a arl.org>
Rispondi-A: liblicense-l a lists.yale.edu
 Oggetto: NIH Public Access Mandate Passes Senate
      A: "liblicense-l a lists.yale.edu" <liblicense-l a lists.yale.edu>

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.

###

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient,
academic, research, and publishing organizations that supports
open public access to the results of federally funded research.
The Alliance was formed in 2004 to urge that peer-reviewed
articles stemming from taxpayer-funded research become fully
accessible and available online at no extra cost to the American
public. Details on the ATA may be found at
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.

--------------------------
Jennifer McLennan
Director of Communications
SPARC
(The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition)
http://www.arl.org/sparc
(202) 296-2296 ext 121
jennifer a arl.org


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