National Institutes of Health glean public money collected by way of taxes and routes it to around with 2,800 research facilities in the United States. Around 212,000 researchers working in these organizations publish more than 60,000 papers a year. But this huge wealth of information remains out of hands of the common public whose money was used to conduct the research in the first place.
When cancer patient in Kansas was denied access to papers containing the latest developments in cancer treatment, she was furious. She complained NIH about it as she was told by the journal carrying the paper that she could obtain it with a $900 yearly subscription.
Triggered by the complaint the NIH thought of a revolutionary way by which a common American can have access to the information. The agency has devised a voluntary plan under which peer-reviewed scientific studies funded by the health agency will be made available to the public. The papers will be put on the Internet from May on the searchable archive PubMed Central, at www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov where anyone can access them free of cost.
"With the rapid growth in the public's use of the internet, NIH must take a leadership role in making available to the public the research that we support," said Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, director of the agency.
Although, the program is voluntary, Zerhouni is optimistic that many scientists will participate.
The earlier draft of the plan, which had set a six-month time span to make the studies public, was an issue of concern to many leading scientific journals. They were worried that NIH’s move will affect their circulation. The extension of the time limit to one year from six months has relived the tension of many journals.
Dr. Donald Kennedy, editor in chief of Science said, "NIH has found a reasonable path. Science has made its studies available to the public after one year for several years.”
