In 2009 Appropriations Bill, NIH Public Access Mandate Would Become Permanent

Andrew Albanese -- Library Journal, 03/10/2009

• NIH mandate to be permanent?
• Conyers' challenge looms
• Copyright issue?

When it comes to legislation, a word or phrase can make a big difference. However, one word ("thereafter") tucked into current federal appropriations bill, now before the Senate after passing the House in late February, would make the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) public access policy, enacted last year, permanent. The Senate is expected to pass the bill as early as today.

In the section funding the NIH, section 217, pertaining to public access, reads:

“The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require in the current fiscal year and thereafter [emphasis added] that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law.”

The final word?
If passed intact, the language would solidify a major victory for open access advocates. The battle over public access, however, will likely not be over. Rep. John Conyers (D-MI) has re-introduced HR 801, the Fair Copyright in Research Works Act—a bill that would undo the NIH policy—and forbid all future policies like that policy.
 
In introducing the bill, Conyers asserted that the NIH policy at least brushes against copyright, which should put the policy under the jurisdiction of his judiciary committee. Experts, however, including 46 top scholars who wrote Congress last year, say that the NIH policy does not run afoul of copyright.

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