Date for Open access to scientific/medical literature

[Guest guest]

On Behalf Of Jim Till

Sent: Friday, October 08, 2004 2:27 AM

Thu, 7 Oct 2004, Kathy Meade posted a message to this list about

advocacy for open access (OA) to the peer-reviewed, publicly-supported

research literature. The message outlines steps that can be taken now

(especially by those located in the USA) to foster OA. Please note that

action needs to be taken before November 16.

Thanks for posting this message, Kathy! A copy is attached below.

The message was prepared by Musa Mayer, a patient-advocate

who is a long-time member of (and a respected contributor

to) the Breast-Cancer mailing list (BCML). It's based mainly

on messages that I've posted recently to the BCML. The most recent of

these messages was posted on October 5, see the archives of the BCML,

at: http://bclist.petebevin.com/list/2004-10/0180.html

Please read the message (and, if you can find the time, do

some advocacy yourself, if you support the NIH's draft plan

- see below).

--Jim Till

Open access to scientific/medical literature

>From a breast cancer friend:

Years ago, many medical/scientific journals made their current issue

available online for free. Others opened their archives. Now that's

rare. Today, it can cost up to $30 to purchase full text of a single

journal article. Subscriptions are prohibitively expensive, and

abstracts often don't include essential information needed to evaluate

studies. How can we, as advocates and consumers, keep current with the

research? How are patients supposed to inform themselves?

Do you believe that when our tax dollars pay for research, it ought to

be publicly accessible when published, without our having to pay a

second time? If so, read on--you are not alone. Open access (OA) is

becoming a big issue.

The material that follows was prepared for distribution by a long time

friend, Canadian epidemiologist Jim Till. Thank you, Jim! Now it is up

to us...

As a taxpaying U.S. citizen, there's a lot you can do to support the

movement towards open access (OA) to scientific research. See: Alliance

for Taxpayer Access, http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/you.html

A short summary of the NIH proposal about OA is at:

http://tinyurl.com/5do5t

(http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-064.html)

At the end of the NIH proposal, there's a statement: " We encourage that

all comments be directed to the following NIH website " :

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/public_access/add.htm

There's an excellent article in Open Access Now, " Patient advocate calls

for Open Access " (An interview with advocate Sharon Terry),

http://www.biomedcentral.com/openaccess/features/

Some excerpts: " ...in 1994 my two children were diagnosed with a rare

genetic disease called PXE "

" ...her battle has been constantly hindered by her difficulty in

accessing scientific information as a member of the lay public. 'At the

beginning we really wanted to get more information,' she recalls. 'But

when we went to try to find that information, we discovered that it was

very hard to get'. " .

" Terry is angered by the argument voiced by some publishers that the lay

public should not have access to research information because they won't

understand it. 'That's very insulting. It's ironic; because one of the

things that they often say to us is that it's dangerous for us to have

that information because we won't know how to interpret it.' But Terry

feels that often the information on rare diseases is of low quality or

even false " .

See the ATA recommendations for individual actions that could help the

OA cause. Among the most effective options are sending a letter, fax, or

email to your Senators expressing support for the NIH plan. This

information is provided in the October issue of Suber's SPARC Open

Access Newsletter,

http://www.earlham.edu/~peters/fos/newsletter/10-02-04.htm

All comments are due on November 16, 2004. See:

http://grants1.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-04-070.html

More from Suber's SPARC OA Newsletter: " The fate of the House

language will be worked out in a conference committee ... The members of

the conference committee are yet to be named. But at this stage the

Senators most worth reaching with your views are Specter (R-PA), Harkin

(D-IA), s (R-AK), Byrd (D-WV), Frist (R-TN), and Daschle (D-SD).

If you have a relationship with any of these Senators or their offices,

or if you reside in one of their states, then your phone call, fax, or

email would be a big help " .

" ... see the ATA recommendations for individual actions that could help

the cause. Among the most effective options are sending a letter, fax,

or email to your Senators expressing support for the NIH plan " . See:

http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/you.html

Via this URL, links are provided to a selection of letters, designed to

give you a start in expressing your personal connection to this issue to

your senators. A link to a lookup service is also provided, to help you

identify their contact information.

As is pointed out at the http://www.taxpayeraccess.org/ site, access to

scientific and medical publications has lagged behind the wide reach of

the Internet into U.S. homes and institutions. Subscription barriers

limit U.S. taxpayer access to research that has been paid for with

public funds. US advocates can do something to change this.

Please feel free to forward copies of this message to anyone who might

be interested.

Advocacy can make a difference!

Thanks, Musa

Musa Mayer

musa@...

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