The AAMC submitted comments April 21 to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in response to a request for information on the agency’s plan to enhance public access to the results of NIH-supported research.
The NIH Public Access Plan is the proposed approach for NIH to implement guidance issued in a memo by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) in 2022, which recommends that agencies ensure free, immediate, and equitable access to federally funded research. Included in the guidance from the OSTP is a requirement for publications and their supporting data to be immediately available upon publication, without an embargo.
In its comments to the NIH, the AAMC emphasized its continued commitment to increasing the availability of the results of federally funded research and doing this in a way that ensures equity of publication opportunities as well as access to publications. The letter also noted the importance of persistent identifiers in the findability and linkage of research outputs.
The AAMC additionally stated that while the NIH has made efforts to uncouple compliance with the public access plan from any particular publication model, the plan, along with many similar changes and requirements from other funders, will have an upstream impact on journals and feed into an ongoing and important conversation about the sustainability of current models of publication.
Based on the feedback received, the NIH plans to update the current NIH Public Access Policy no later than Dec. 31, 2024, with an effective date no later than Dec. 31, 2025.
- Washington Highlights