Comment from the American Institute of Physics (AIP) on the Implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy

H. Frederick Dylla, Executive Director and CEOOne Physics Ellipse March 17, 2008College Park, MD 20740-3843The Honorable Elias ZerhouniTel. 301-209-3131DirectorFax 301-209-3133The National Institutes of HealthE-mail: dylla@aip.org Bethesda, MD 20892http://www.aip.orgSubject: Comment from the American Institute of Physics (AIP) on theImplementation of the NIH Public Access PolicyDear Dr. Zerhouni:The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is concerned about the implementation of the NIH PublicAccess Policy. AIP, an umbrella organization for ten physics-related societies representing130,000 scientists, engineers and educators is a nonprofit publisher of science journals.1AIP has been fully compliant with the NIH’s public access on a voluntary basis. This was thecase before the 2007 legislated mandate and will continue to be so as outlined in the January 2008Revised NIH Policy. Nevertheless, we are greatly apprehensive about the NIH’s implementation ofthe policy and its likely harm to the integrity and viability of peer-reviewed scientific publishing.While AIP and many publishers embrace the laudable legislative goal of public access to thepublished results of NIH-funded research, we take issue with NIH’s implementation of the policy.The current and proposed NIH implementation will compromise the integrity and usefulness of thescientific record by presenting researchers and the public with multiple versions of the samearticle. Furthermore, NIH’s ...