Happening on the Hill

In early October, I was joined by student Nick Shockey ’09 to lead a national discussion via the Internet concerning public access to publicly-funded research information.

Language in the 2008 Labor, Health, and Human Services Appropriations Bill directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to require researchers funded by the agency to deposit a copy of their accepted peer-reviewed articles in the publicly-accessible Pub Med Central database. Those articles would then be made available to the public for free within 12 months of the date of publication in a scholarly journal. The NIH uses tax dollars to fund research that produces more than 65,000 published journal articles each year. This appropriations bill passed the House and the Senate in October, but was vetoed by President Bush, and there were insufficient votes to override the veto.  At this writing, however, members of both houses are working on compromise language on all spending bills; it’s possible that this measure will survive the process.

Many Texans have only limited access to information that they have paid for as taxpayers. The provision in the appropriations bill presents an opportunity to do the right thing – to provide timely access on the Internet to the peer-reviewed scientific articles.  Widespread access to the information contained in these articles is an essential, inseparable component of investment in science.  This legislation addresses only one piece of the puzzle – research funded by the NIH – but it represents an important step on the part of Congress as it recognizes the need to provide access regardless of institutional affiliation or wealth.

The Web cast was sponsored by The Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), on whose steering committee I serve.

Nick, a senator with Trinity’s Association of Student Representatives, has been a leading advocate for opening access to research. He has offered an ASR resolution in support of public access to taxpayer-funded research and helped SPARC to recognize and embrace the importance of working with students.

The audience of our Web cast included academic librarians from the U.S. (though one man from Scotland was there) as well as researchers and publishers.

Diane J. Graves is the University Librarian at Coates Library.