New Law Gives Open Access to Research
Thursday, January 3rd, 2008Open access advocates have much to celebrate in the New Year after President Bush signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007. The new law requires free public access to research funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It replaces a voluntary system put into place in 2005.
Despite sometimes controversial publisher opposition to the legislation, the provision comes as no surprise. For several years, various proponents of open access, led by the Alliance for Taxpayer Access have argued that patients, healthcare professionals and scientists should have free, timely access to taxpayer-funded research.
In 2006 Congress proposed, but never voted on a bill that would have required open access to peer-reviewed manuscripts within six months of publication. The new law is slightly more favorable to publishers, mandating that researchers add their material to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central database no later than 12 months after publication.
