Concerned about a proposal from the National Institues of Health (NIH) that could make all government-funded STM research available to the public for free, a coalition of publishers and health assocations is offering to provide free online access to some publicly funded medical research. However, academic librarians, who support the free-access proposal, said the initiative is not enough.
The Web site, www.patientinform.org, will launch next spring as a pilot project, and will disseminate original medical research directly to consumers. The coalition launching the site is made up of about 20 STM publishers—among them Reed Elsevier (parent company of PW), John Wiley and Oxford University Press—and three patient assoications: the American Cancer Society, the American Diabetes Association and the American Heart Association. The site initially will offer consumers research on cancer, diabetes and heart disease. The site's research will be tailored to the needs of laypersons and will offer commentary and Web links suited to patients' needs.
Asked whether PatientInform is a response to the NIH proposal, Susan Spilka, a spokesperson for John Wiley, told PW, "No, it is not." She called it "a parallel development that addresses the same concerns" that began 18 months ago. Spilka acknowledged that the announcement was "accelerated so that it can be considered an alternative to the NIH proposal." She emphasized that PatientInform would be more effective than the NIH proposal at getting useful research information to the public, "because it couples raw research with interpretive materials aimed at consumers. It will empower patients."
Spilka emphasized that once up and running, PatientInform will expand the scope of the research it offers, adding publishers and more patient health associations. She called PatientInform an "outgrowth of the migration of research material online that began in the 1990s." Spilka compared the program to online resources such as CrossRef, an academic Web-linking resource, and databases like HINARI and AGORA, which offer free access to health and agricultural information, respectively, to developing nations. "It's a part of a commitment that publishers have made to getting information to the people that need it," said Spilka.
Nevertheless, librarians see PatientInform as a response to a proposal put forth by the NIH this summer to make all taxpayer-funded research available for free through PubMed Central, the NIH's online archive, within six months of original publication.
Rick Johnson, director of the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition, an alliance of academic librarians, was highly critical of the publishers' initiative. He told PW that while he applauded efforts to make medical research freely available, "this one is too little, too late." He said the program will offer "only a very tiny portion of taxpayer-funded research for public consumption." Johnson called PatientInform's offer of access "limited," and said, "we worry about any attempts to confuse an overdue outreach effort by journal publishers with enlightened public policy."
The Association of American Publishers emphatically opposes the NIH free-access proposal, while academic and research librarians vigorously support it. Librarians see it as relief from the high cost of scientific journals. Librarians also complain about making taxpayers essentially pay twice for the same research. STM publishers are worried that the legislation could put them out of business, while many scientific associations are quick to note that many of their activities are funded by the commercial publication of scientific studies.
