Public Access to NIH Research (broadcast Friday, April 11th, 2008)

This week, rules went into effect that say that reports of research funded by the National Institutes of Health, the major medical research funding agency in the United States, must be made freely available after a maximum of one year. A publication based on NIH-funded work is now required to be deposited in a public database. The law says that "The Director of the National Institutes of Health shall require that all investigators funded by the NIH submit or have submitted for them to the National Library of Medicine’s PubMed Central an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscripts upon acceptance for publication, to be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the official date of publication: Provided, That the NIH shall implement the public access policy in a manner consistent with copyright law."

In this segment, Ira talks with former NIH director Harold Varmus, a leading proponent of open access to research and one of the founders of the Public Library of Science, an open-access scientific journal. Teachers, find more information about using Science Friday as a classroom resource in the Kids' Connection.