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As of April 7, faculty authors publishing results of federally funded research have some important new rules to follow.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) Web site states: “The NIH Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH funded research. It requires scientists to submit journal articles that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central (www. pubmedcentral.nih.gov). The Policy requires that these articles be accessible to the public on PubMed Central to help advance science and improve human health.”
The policy applies to NIH awards made during the 2007–08 fiscal year and to peer- reviewed articles that were accepted for publication on or after April 7. This includes multi-year awards where funding is active in the 2007–08 fiscal year.
Researchers must deposit a copy of any article accepted for publication in a peer- reviewed journal in the PubMed Central repository. And beginning May 25, documentation such as progress reports and renewal applications must cite the PubMed Central ID number of any articles resulting from that research. Commercial publishers will maintain exclusive publishing rights for one year before the articles must be available through PubMed Central.
“This means the article will be available at no cost to anyone, forever,” said Carol Jenkins, director of the Health Sciences Library (HSL). “We have a team of librarians who are already meeting with groups of faculty and research administrators to explain the policy and offer assistance, and who are ready to respond to any and all requests for such.”
The new policy is a condition of funding from the NIH, including partial funding. Failure to comply could put a researcher’s future NIH funding in jeopardy, said Juliann Tenney, director of Carolina’s Research Compliance Office. If a journal publisher is hesitant to comply with the new policy, researchers should contact Fletcher Fairey, associate University counsel, at 843-1637 (fletcher_fairey@unc.edu). Some journals will automatically submit the article to PubMed Central, and HSL provides a list of some 300 of these journals (see links below).
“This policy is very controversial,” said Sarah Michalak, University librarian. “And the entities that make it that way are the commercial publishers.”
High serials costs are a major barrier to accessing current medical and scientific research. Subscription bases are usually small, and even big academic libraries often struggle to afford them. Publishers often require libraries to buy journal subscriptions in bundles, and access to a major title can cost up to $15,000 a year. Carolina’s libraries spend about $800,000 a year on serials subscriptions, and the costs climb every year.
Publishers such as Elsevier feared that free access to articles online — even after a year of embargo — will lead to serious declines in their revenue. But, Michalak said, there was no indication that academic libraries would systematically cancel their subscriptions and give up immediate access for their patrons.
For additional information, refer to www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/ScholCom/index.cfm, www.hsl.unc.edu/Collections/NIHToolkit/NIHPublicAccessToolkit.cfm and publicaccess.nih.gov.
Provided by the Division of Research and Economic
Development
Editor: Neil Caudle
Writer: Margarite Nathe