Congress supports public access

In a Labor, Health and Human Services and Education appropriations bill passed late last week, the U.S. House of Representatives included a measure that would require all journal articles stemming from research funded by the National Institutes of Health to be made publicly accessible within 12 months of publication as a condition of receiving NIH funding. The Senate Appropriations Committee has approved a bill with a similar provision, which will go before the full Senate in coming weeks. Such moves indicate strong Congressional support for shifting the current NIH Public Access Policy from a request to a requirement, despite publishers' attempts to lobby against such a mandate. Although President Bush has indicated that he will veto the bill over funding disagreements, it is likely that mandating public access to taxpayer-funded research results will continue to be an aim of Congress.