For Immediate Release
November 22, 2005
Contact: Jennifer Heffelfinger
jennifer@arl.org
TAXPAYER ADVOCACY GROUP LAUDS CALL BY NIH ADVISORY PANEL
FOR MANDATORY PUBLIC ACCESS TO RESEARCH
Majority of NIH Public Access Working Group members also support
free availability of NIH-funded research papers within six months of publication
Washington, DC – The Alliance for Taxpayer Access, a national coalition of over 60 library, non-profit, and patient advocacy groups, today praised the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Public Access Working Group (PAWG) for recommending that researchers be required to deposit published articles resulting from NIH funding in PubMed Central (PMC), NIH’s online database of journal literature.
At a November 15 meeting of the working group, a majority of members also called for articles to be freely available in PMC within six months of their publication in a journal. The current NIH policy is voluntary for funding recipients and allows access to be delayed for up to one year.
Data presented to the working group indicates that less than five percent of eligible papers are being deposited in PMC. The Public Access Working Group’s recommendation is considered significant because of Congressional concern that the current policy has failed to achieve the goals set out by the policy. This past summer, the House and Senate called on NIH to report on the policy’s progress by early 2006.
The Public Access Working Group, which reports to the Board of Regents of NIH’s National Library of Medicine, includes publishers, societies, researchers, patient groups, and libraries. It was convened by NIH last May to inform the implementation of its Public Access Policy (http://publicaccess.nih.gov).
Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition), says “We are pleased that the Public Access Working Group has pointed the way for NIH to achieve its goals of archiving NIH research, advancing science, and providing taxpayers with access to research.” SPARC is a founding member and administrator of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access.
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More information:
o A news report on the November 15 NIH Public Access Working Group meeting, “NIH Public Access Policy Should be Mandatory, Advisors Recommend,” appeared in Health News Daily (November 17, 2005).
o A list of the Public Access Group Working members is at http://www.nlm.nih.gov/od/bor/workgroup_roster.html.
The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of stakeholders who support reforms that will make publicly funded research accessible to the public. Formed in 2004, the Alliance played a leading role in the drive for free access on the Internet to peer-reviewed articles funded by the U.S. National Institutes of Health. It is administered on behalf of Alliance members by SPARC (Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition). Information on the Alliance may be found at www.taxpayeraccess.org. Alliance members include:
AIDS Action Baltimore
AIDS Vaccine Advocacy Coalition
American Association of Law Libraries
American Library Association
American Medical Student Association
Amherst College Library
Arthritis Foundation
Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum
Association of Academic Health Sciences Libraries
Association of College & Research Libraries
Association of Maternal and Child Health Programs
Association of Research Libraries
Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease and Congenital Hepatic Fibrosis Alliance (ARPKD/CHF Alliance)
Barth Syndrome Foundation
Boston College Libraries
Boston Library Consortium
Bowdoin College Library
Carnegie Mellon University Libraries
Chemists Without Borders
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
CUNY – City College Libraries
Coalition for Heritable Disorders of Connective Tissue
Colorado State University
Conquer Fragile X Syndrome
Denison University – William H. Doane Library
Down Syndrome Treatment and Research Foundation
Eastern Kentucky University Libraries
Emory University Libraries
Facing Our Risk of Cancer Empowered (FORCE)
Genetic Alliance
Global Neuroscience Inititative Foundation
Greater Western Library Alliance
International Mosaic Down Syndrome Association (IMDSA)
International Journal of Medical Sciences
IsoDicentric 15 Exchange, Advocacy and Support (IDEAS)
Kent State University Libraries
Linda Hall Library of Science, Engineering & Technology
Loyola Univesity Chicago Libraries
Medical Education Online
Mycosis Fungoides Foundation
National Alliance for Autism Research
National Coalition for PKU & Allied Disorders
National Fragile X Foundation
National Tay-Sachs & Allied Diseases Association
New England Biolabs
Oberlin College
Ohio Library and Information Network
Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy
Prader-Willi Syndrome Association
Public Knowledge
Public Library of Science
Pseudoxanthoma Elasticum (PXE) International
Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC)
Special Libraries Association
Spina Bifida Association of America
Swarthmore College
Tourette Syndrome Association
Tufts University Libraries
University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries
University of Connecticut Libraries
University of Kansas
University of New Hampshire
University of Wisconsin – Madison Libraries
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh – Forrest R. Polk Library
Utah Academic Library Consortium
Wayne State University College of Nursing
Williams College Libraries
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Jennifer Heffelfinger
Communications Specialist
SPARC
jennifer@arl.org
(202) 296-2296 x121
Fax: (202) 872-0884
www.arl.org/sparc