Open Access: It's Not Just A Good Idea, It's The Law

A relatively young research lobbying group is on the verge of a major legislative victory:

The U.S. Senate last night approved the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill (S.1710), including a provision that directs the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to strengthen its Public Access Policy by requiring rather than requesting participation by researchers. The bill will now be reconciled with the House Appropriations Bill, which contains a similar provision, in another step toward support for public access to publicly funded research becoming United States law.

Under this law, most NIH-funded researchers would be required to post their publications to the freely-accessible PubMed Central database, run by the National Library of Medicine, within 12 months of the print publication coming out. Journal publishers that rely on the income stream from reprint sales will need to find a new racket. Once this funding bill goes through (which seems likely), the 12-month clock will start ticking on most current biomedical research.