American Journal of Transplantation 2008; 8: 1969 Wiley Periodicals Inc.
C 2008 The Authors C 2008 The American Society of Journal compilation Transplantation and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons
Editorial
doi: 10.1111/j.1600-6143.2008.02363.x
AJT’s Response to the National Institutes of Health Public Access Regulations A. D. Kirka and D. R. Salomonb, ∗ a
Department of Surgery, Emory University, Atlanta, GA Department of Molecular and Experimental, The Scripps Research Institute, La Jolla, CA ∗ Corresponding author: Daniel R. Salomon,
[email protected] b
Received 6 June 2008, revised 28 June 2008 and accepted for publication 25 June 2008
On April 7, 2008, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) proceeded with the final implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy, Division G, Title II, Section 218 of PL 110–161 (Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2008) (1). This new policy requires ’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 of 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’. The regulation has been implemented to ensure that publicly funded science is available to the public. This is a well-intended effort to increase the transparency of the scientific process and as a tangible benefit to tax-paying citizens of the United States. However, it has been accompanied by several punitive regulations including rules governing how references in government grants are cited and limiting access to federal funds if applicants are not compliant. The implementation of this regulation has been laid exclusively at the feet of the individual investigators increasing
their regulatory burden and forcing another administrative task upon scientists. In addition, these changes have created a level of anxiety at academic institutions based on concerns that compliance issues could directly and negatively impact NIH funding. Thus, institutions have felt compelled to implement additional layers of oversight and verification to insure that their faculty members are in compliance. As such, the policy has had the typical effect of bureaucratic amplification. Importantly, the requirements have been established without consideration of the many circumstances that extend beyond the influence of authors including copyright law, embargo regulations and international concerns. In response to this new regulatory mandate, the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Transplantation has unanimously approved a new policy that all publications accepted to the Journal, regardless of their source of funding support, will be automatically posted to the National Library of Medicine PubMed Central upon acceptance. Articles will be automatically available within the 1-year time frame required by the NIH. To further assist the efforts of our authors to be compliant with the new regulations, they will be sent the PubMed Identification number corresponding to their article as soon as it is available for use in their NIH grant submissions and grant reports. In this way, the Editorial Board hopes to lift one of the many non-scientific tasks from the backs of its authors and insure that publication in the Journal carries with it an undiluted sense of accomplishment.
Reference 1. National Institutes of Health Public Access. http://publicaccess.nih. gov/index.htm. Accessed July 24, 2008.
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