Comment on NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access

When the National Institutes of Health established its Public Access Policy in 2008, it was promoted by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.

In 2022, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) released a memo on “Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research” that establishes new guidance for improving public access to scholarly publications and data resulting from Federally supported research.

So, the NIH continued its commitment to providing public access to scholarly publications and data resulting from the research it supports with its 2023 NIH Data Management and Sharing policy.

Now the National Institutes of Health has opened a period for receiving public comment on the “NIH Plan to Enhance Public Access to the Results of NIH-Supported Research.”

Melanie Dolechek, Executive Director of the Society for Scholarly Publishing recently reiterated to its members, “The NIH Public Access Plan outlines the proposed approach NIH will take to implement the new guidance, consistent with its longstanding commitment to public access.”

The Public Access Policy ensures that the public has access to the published results of NIH-funded research. It requires scientists to submit final peer-reviewed journal manuscripts that arise from NIH funds to the digital archive PubMed Central.

Comments must be submitted at https://osp.od.nih.gov/nih-plan-to-enhance-public-access-to-the-results-of-nih-supported-research. Responses will be accepted through April 24, 2023.