Voice Your Opinion to the NIH

Editors' Note: For more information about the NIH proposal for
open access, read Christopher Frenz's EOF column, "Open Access for
Science", in the April 2005 issue of Linux Journal.

In recent months, open access for science has become a heavily debated
topic. Many scientists are in full support of an open access publishing
model, but many publishers of scientific journals remain stalwart
opponents. In early February 2005, however, a partial victory towards
achieving open access was scored when the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) announced it had decided to establish a voluntary program
that would present researchers with the option of archiving their published
articles in the open electronic repository PubMed Central.

NIH's new policy is set to go into effect in May 2005, and while it represents
a step in the right direction, it still is a far cry from a true open access requirement.
In addition to being an optional program, the program also allows articles
to be delayed for up to a year before they can appear freely, in order
to protect the interests of the publisher.

The value associated with a given research paper often depends on the age of the content,
with newer research results generally being of more value and interest to
researchers within a given field. The original proposal had called for
a mandatory program that would require all NIH-funded studies to be
archived within a period of six months. Additionally, NIH policies apply to
much of the biomedical research within the United States. But research in
other disciplines, such as physics or computer science, largely is unaffected
by these decisions, because this type of research funding often stems
from other government agencies, such as the National Science Foundation.

Thus, as believers in the ideals of openness and freedom, we as Linux
enthusiasts should rally behind the cause of open access to scientific
literature. Doing so provides us with yet another forum for showing
the world how the free exchange of ideas and information can benefit
us all.

In order to voice your support of open access to the National
Institutes of Health, e-mail comments can be sent to
PublicAccess@nih.gov. Alternatively, you also can write to your local Congressman or Senator
in support of open access, as NIH's open access plans were presented
to Congress at the end of 2004. Congressional contact information can be found
at www.house.gov and www.senate.gov, respectively.

Christopher M. Frenz is a bioinformaticist with more than five
years of experience using Linux. He also is the author of the book
Visual Basic and Visual Basic .NET for Scientists and
Engineers (Apress) and currently is writing a book about Perl
programming.