Managing Your Intellectual Property

Representative John Conyers (D-MI) has reintroduced legislation before the Judiciary Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives that would amend federal copyright law to prohibit federal agencies from requiring articles resulting from research projects they fund to be made publicly accessible via open access outlets.  This legislation is in response to the National Institutes of Health’s public access policy.

Among the organizations opposed to the legislation are the American Association of Universities and the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, which sent a joint letter to committee members. If you would like to send a message to your representative, visit the House Judiciary Committee Web page for a list of members and links to their Web sites.

What does the new National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy mean for NIH-funded researchers at UCLA, and how can UCLA librarians help them comply? Find out more at a session on Wednesday, February 25, led by members of the Library’s Scholarly Communication Steering Committee.

The program will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m.  Attendance is limited to UCLA faculty, researchers, and administrators. Admission is free, and lunch will be provided. Advance reservations are required.

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet, and Intellectual Property scheduled a  hearing to address the copyright policy implications of the NIH Public Access Policy.  The hearing will be this Thursday, September 11 at 1pm Eastern and can be viewed online.

Several members of the UCLA community including the Director of Research, the Director of Office of Intellectual Property Administration, and the University Librarian today sent letters to the California delegation in support of the NIH Public Access Policy to make published research funded by NIH openly accessible after 6 months.

Submit comments to your representative or the chair of the Judiciary Committee.

For more background on the issue, see the Library Journal article “NIH Public Access Policy To Face Copyright Challenge in Congress?”

The University of California and UCLA both submitted comments supporting the NIH Public Access Policy, detailing the campuses’ efforts, and suggesting improvements to the process.

The UCLA letter, signed by Vice Chancellor for Research Roberto Peccei, Vice Provost of Intellectual Property and Industrial Relations and Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Kathryn Atchison, and University Librarian Gary E. Strong, described their collaborative efforts “targeted at faculty, librarians, and staff aimed to inform, educate, and assist researchers and to support the broadest possible dissemination of their work.” In addition, the letter explains, “the Library has taken the lead in providing individual assistance to authors who have questions about the submission process.”

In addition, UC Provost and Executive Vice President Wyatt Hume submitted a letter on behalf of the university detailing UC-wide efforts.

If you have general questions about the policy or how you can ensure you are compliant, email the Library for assistance at nih@library.ucla.edu.

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) maintains a list of journal titles whose publishers will submit final published articles to PubMed Central (PMC) for authors in accordance with the NIH Public Access Policy. This will make complying with the new policy easier for NIH-funded researchers who publish in these journals.

Last week, six journals were added to the growing list of more than 350.  The new titles are Biotechnology for Biofuels, HPB Surgery, International Archives of Medicine, Journal of Chiropractic Education, Marine Drugs, and Molecular Cytogenetics.

Thanks to Open Access News for the update.

On this Friday’s National Public Radio show “Science Friday”, host Ira Flatow will interview former National Institutes of Health Director Harold Varmus to discuss the NIH Public Access Policy which went into effect this week.  Varmus is a founder of the Public Library of Science and a proponent of open access to research

Following a public hearing on March 20, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is seeking further public comments on the implementation of its public access policy.  Comments are being accepted until May 31, 2008, on the following:

• Recommendations for alternative implementation approaches to those already reflected in the policy;
• Recommendations for monitoring and ensuring compliance with the policy;
• Additional policy-related information, training, or communications that would be helpful.

The policy requires that final, peer-reviewed articles resulting from NIH-funded research be submitted to that National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central, where they will be made publicly accessible no later than twelve months following publication.  Members of the public, including UCLA University Librarian Gary E. Strong, submitted more than four hundred comments to the March 20 hearing, with sixty percent supporting the policy as is and fifteen percent requesting that the twelve-month delay be shortened.

President Bush has signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764), which includes a provision directing the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to provide the public with open online access to findings from its funded research. Researchers will now be required to deposit electronic copies of their peer-reviewed manuscripts into the National Library of Medicine’s online archive, PubMed Central, where full texts of the articles will be publicly available no later than twelve months after publication in a journal.

Further information is available on the Alliance for Taxpayer Access Web page.

In a July 27 editorial, the Los Angeles Times supports a provision of a National Institutes of Health funding bill that stipulates “the results of the studies the government funds must be made freely available online within 12 months of their publication.”

The U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee agreed to direct the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to require that its funded research be made publicly available on the Internet. The Senate’s 2008 appropriations bill requires that NIH-funded researchers deposit in the National Library of Medicine’s online archive an electronic copy of their peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication in a journal. Articles would become publicly available no later than twelve months after publication. The bill will go to the full Senate later this summer, and the U.S. House of Representatives is expected to consider a similar measure in July. More information is available at www.taxpayeraccess.org.