[Federal Register Volume 69, Number 180 (Friday, September 17, 2004)]
[Notices]
[Page 56074]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 04-21097]


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DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

National Institutes of Health


Enhanced Public Access to National Institutes of Health (NIH) 
Research Information

ACTION: Notice.

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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 
[email protected] 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