Information Today reported that on July 19, the US House of Representatives approved measures directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide free public access to agency-funded research findings within 12 months of their publication in a peer-reviewed journal. Of course, agency-funded research is taxpayer-funded research, so you would think that NIH would be happy to accommodate this idea. Not quite.
When first asked to do this on a voluntary basis, less than 5% of the eligible research was made available. Why is there this reluctance to make the results of publicly-funded medical research more widely available?
Most of the resistance comes from the scientific publishing companies, who would like to maintain their full rights over published materials for as long a period as possible, so that they can maximize the return on their investment into these publications, which includes the peer-review and editing infrastructures. Those opposed to this measure, such as Professional and Scholarly Publishing Division of the Association of American Publishers , and a coalition of academic and society publishers from within the DC Principles Coalition of scientific publishers, wrote a letter to members expressing strong concern with the language in the appropriations bill .
My sense is that scientists, who are constantly on top of the latest developments, will not wait 12 months to see the results of ongoing research, they will continue to buy the journals as they always have. It is highly unlikely that this development will negatively affect the current system of peer review and quality editing.
There are several benefits to having this information openly available 12 months after publication as highlighted in an open letter to Congress by a group of 26 Nobel Prize winners. Greater availability will also allow scientists in developing countries, scientists in other disciplines, industry researchers and interested lay people, most of whom could not ordinarily afford to subscribe to these journals, free access to the information. This is a very large constituency that should never be overlooked when considering the opportunity to advance medical science.
