The National Institutes of Health public-access policy for govern...

free PubMed Central Web site within 12 months of publication. House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., recently reintroduced a bill that would scrap the policy, also known as open access (WID Feb 5 p4). He said it infringes on the jurisdiction of his committee and harms copyright owners. Researchers often assign the rights to their work to academic publishers, who cover the cost of peer review, so it will be published. Publishers historically have made the articles public after a lag that varies widely. The access provision hedges on the copyright conflict. It says the policy will be enforced “in the current fiscal year and thereafter,” but only “in a manner consistent with copyright law.” The policy was first approved, at that time subject to annual renewal, in a fiscal 2008 appropriations bill, upsetting Conyers (WID Sept 12 p1). The Alliance for Taxpayer Access, which supports the policy, said 3,000 new manuscripts are deposited monthly to PubMed Central, with more than 2 million visitors a day. “Improved access will enable universities to maximize their own investment in research, and widen the potential for discovery as the results are more readily available for others to build upon,” said David Shulenburger, the vice president of academic affairs of the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, a member of the alliance.