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a American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine
b American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology
c Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society
On February 3, 2005, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) issued the NIH Public Access Policy (1, 2). This Policy requests that beginning May 2, 2005, NIH-funded investigators submit to the NIH National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central an electronic version of the final form of any manuscript resulting from research supported, in whole or in part, by the NIH. The final manuscript is considered to be the version accepted for journal publication. These submitted articles will become part of a publicly accessible archive of NIH-supported research. While the NIH Public Access Policy encourages rapid submission of published articles to PubMed, a period of up to 12 months after final publication in a journal is permitted before an article is transmitted to PubMed Central for public release.
The NIH Public Access Policy has wide-ranging implications for the public, authors, journals, and professional societies, such as the American Thoracic Society, that support medical and scientific journals. The goal of this Policy, to make the results of research supported by the NIH available to the public, is laudable and consistent with that of professional societies, which aim to bring medical advances to patients as rapidly as possible. The public will benefit from being able to access a central repository of articles that provide results of NIH-supported research. The magnitude of this endeavor is huge, as 50,000–70,000 papers reporting research underwritten by the NIH are estimated to be published each year, and the PubMed Central archive is intended to act as a permanent repository for NIH-funded publications (1).
Because the NIH Policy applies only to peer-reviewed research publications, it has major ramifications for the journals that provide this review function. Peer review is crucial in ensuring that the presentation and interpretation of scientific results are appropriate, unbiased, and accurate, and provides a crucial imprimatur of scientific quality. The NIH has recognized the important role that journals play in validating the scientific integrity of published articles through providing a rigorous prepublication review, and there has been no suggestion by the NIH that an alternative peer review system be put into place. The NIH policy also recognizes the financial implications that journals would face if there were immediate access to published articles. In that case, journals would provide a crucial peer review process, but would immediately lose any benefit that results from selecting the most appropriate articles for their readership. More importantly, there would be little reason for journal subscriptions, since their content would be immediately accessible through PubMed Central.
Many journals are published by for-profit companies. However, not-for-profit professional societies such as the ATS also serve as publishers of major medical and scientific journals, including the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine (AJRCCM), American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology (AJRCMB), and Proceedings of the American Thoracic Society (PATS). Subscription costs are necessary not only for printing the journals, but also in supporting their editorial functions, including providing the peer review process. In addition, journal revenues are important in allowing professional societies such as the ATS to fulfill their educational and public interest missions. The potential impact on professional organizations of the NIH Public Access Policy was a focus of discussion during the review and public comment period for this policy. Understanding that the timing of release of articles to PubMed would have a major impact on the viability of journals, and particularly on the ability to ensure that manuscripts received appropriate peer review, the NIH determined that a period of up to 12 months would be allowed before articles were submitted to PubMed. Of note, this 12-month period conforms with the existing policy for ATS journals, as all articles are made freely accessible to the public one year after publication. We plan to continue the 12-month period from publication of an article to its release to broader public access. This timeline will be compliant with the NIH policy. We also will continue our policy of more rapid release of articles that have immediate public health implications.
The ATS and its journals plan to work with authors and the NIH to facilitate the guidelines of the Public Access Policy. Although it is clear in the NIH Policy that submission of the electronic final manuscript is voluntary and not mandatory, we understand that compliance with its guidelines will benefit both the public and our NIH-funded authors. There are a number of issues that will need to be addressed in this process. For example, while the NIH policy refers to "final publication" as starting the time period for public release of an article, the actual definition of this term remains somewhat unclear. We plan to work with other journals and publishers to have a consistent approach concerning acceptance dates for the final form of a manuscript. Similarly, while the NIH Policy asks that authors submit their articles to PubMed Central upon publication, the actual copyright for published material is not held by the authors, but rather by the ATS, for articles that appear in the AJRCCM, AJRCMB, or PATS. Therefore, manuscripts that appear in these journals cannot be released without ATS consent. To help with this process and to avoid any concerns that authors may have about being in compliance with the NIH policy, the three journals plan to transfer articles directly to PubMed Central on behalf of the authors. Our copyright forms are in the process of being rewritten to address such issues and be compliant with the NIH guidelines.
Medical journals exist to provide information that leads to better understanding of normal physiology as well as the pathophysiology and treatment of disease. Rather than being a forum for communication among only a small coterie of researchers, we hope to have a greater influence, bringing new concepts of disease and their therapy to caregivers, patients, and the public that will be affected by such advances. The NIH Public Access Policy holds tremendous promise in aiding journals such as the AJRCCM, AJRCMB, and PATS to reach this broader audience and improve dissemination of health-related information. We look forward to working with the NIH and other journals on this major initiative to fulfill our primary mission of presenting the most important advances related to respiratory and critical care medicine.
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Conflict of Interest Statement: E.A. does not have a financial relationship with a commercial entity that has an interest in the subject of this manuscript; S.D.S. has participated in advisory boards for Boehringer Ingelheim, GlaxoSmithKline, Millennium, Pfizer, Wyeth, and ICOS, and his laboratory has performed research in collaboration with Pfizer, Arriva, ONO, and Taisho, for which no personal income was obtained; and A.R.L. does not have a financial relationship with a commercial entity that has an interest in the subject of this manuscript.
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