Libraries to assist faculty with new federal law

A requirement to provide public online access to research findings funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) took effect on April 7.

From that date on, all investigators with NIH funding are required to submit accepted, peer-reviewed manuscripts to PubMed Central, the free NIH digital archive of biomedical and life sciences research. The database will provide online access to the research within a year.

The UW–Madison Libraries Scholarly Communication and Publishing Committee (SCP) is working with faculty and the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs to help researchers comply with the mandate. Among several services, the libraries will answer questions and make presentations about the policy; assist in amending a copyright transfer agreement or use the campus copyright agreement; submit a manuscript to PubMed Central on behalf of the author/co-author; and help grant submitters find citation information and PubMed Central reference numbers that will be required after May 25.

NIH has indicated that a failure to comply with this statutory requirement may delay a future grant or may jeopardize future research funding. Expected benefits of the policy include round-the-clock worldwide access to taxpayer-supported research and scholarship, greater visibility for research and stronger assurances of research preservation.

For more information, visit http://library.wisc.edu/scp/nih-policy.html.