[Federal Register: September 17, 2004 (Volume 69, Number 180)]
[Notices]
[Page 56074]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr17se04-81]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES
National Institutes of Health
Enhanced Public Access to National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Research Information
ACTION: Notice.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
SUMMARY: With this notice, NIH announces and seeks public comments
regarding its plans to facilitate enhanced public access to NIH health-
related research information. The NIH intends to request that its
grantees and supported Principal Investigators provide the NIH with
electronic copies of all final version manuscripts upon acceptance for
publication if the research was supported in whole or in part by NIH
funding. This would include all research grants, cooperative
agreements, and contracts, as well as National Research Service Award
(NRSA) fellowships. We define final manuscript as the author's version
resulting after all modifications due to the peer review process.
Submission of the final manuscript will provide NIH-supported
investigators with an alternate means by which they will meet and
fulfill the requirement of the provision of one copy of each
publication in the annual or final progress reports. Submission of the
electronic versions of final manuscripts will be monitored as part of
the annual grant progress review and close-out process.
The NIH considers final manuscripts to be an important record of
the research funded by the Government and will archive these
manuscripts and any appropriate supplementary information in PubMed
Central (PMC), NIH's digital repository for biomedical research. Six
months after an NIH-supported research study's publication-or sooner if
the publisher agrees-the manuscript will be made available freely to
the public through PMC. If the publisher requests, the author's final
version of the publication will be replaced in the PMC archive by the
final publisher's copy with an appropriate link to the publisher's
electronic database.
As with NIH's DNA sequence and genetics databases, this digital
archive in PMC is expected to be fully searchable to enhance retrieval
and can be shared with other international digital repositories to
maximize archiving and to provide widespread access to this
information. It is anticipated that investigators applying for new and
competing renewal support from the NIH will utilize this resource by
providing links in their applications to their PubMed archived
information. This practice will increase the efficiency of the
application and review process.
The NIH trusts that the up-to-six-month delay to public archiving
in PMC recommended by the policy will not result in unreasonable or
disproportionate charges to grantees. As with all other costs, NIH
expects its grantees to be careful stewards of Federal funds and to
carefully manage these resources. We will carefully monitor requested
budgets and other costing information and would consider options to
ensure that grantees' budgets are not unduly affected by this policy.
Background: The NIH is dedicated to improving the health of
Americans by conducting and funding biomedical research that will help
prevent, detect, treat, and reduce the burdens of disease and
disability. In order to achieve these goals, it is essential to ensure
that scientific information arising from NIH-funded research is
available in a timely fashion to other scientists, health care
providers, students, teachers, and the many millions of Americans
searching the Web to obtain credible health-related information. The
NIH's mission includes a long-standing commitment to share and support
public access to the results and accomplishments of the activities that
it funds.
Establishing a comprehensive, searchable electronic resource of
NIH-funded research results and providing free access to all, is
perhaps the most fundamental way to collect and disseminate this
information. The NIH must balance this need with the ability of
journals and publishers to preserve their critical role in the peer
review, editing, and scientific quality control process. The economic
and business implications of any changes to the current paradigm must
be considered as the NIH weighs options to ensure public access to the
results of studies funded with public support without compromising the
quality of the information being provided. The NIH has established and
intends to maintain a dialogue with publishers, investigators, and
representatives from scientific associations and the public to ensure
the success of this initiative.
Request for Comments: The NIH encourages comments concerning its
intentions to enhance public access to NIH-funded health-related
research information as outlined in this notice. Comments on short-term
impacts and suggestions for mitigating these are especially welcome.
Persons, groups, and organizations interested in commenting on
NIH's intentions should direct their comments to the following NIH Web
site: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm. As an
alternative, comments may be submitted by e-mail to
PublicAccess@nih.gov or sent by mail to the following address: NIH
Public Access Comments, National Institutes of Health, Office of
Extramural Research, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Room 350, Bethesda, MD
20892-7963.
DATES: Comments must be received on or before November 16, 2004.
Dated: September 14, 2004.
Elias A. Zerhouni,
Director, National Institutes of Health.
[FR Doc. 04-21097 Filed 9-15-04; 3:04 pm]
BILLING CODE 4140-01-P