Science Commons Announcements

["Kaitlin Thaney" <kaitlin AT creativecommons.org>]

http://sciencecommons.org/weblog/archives/2008/02/29/white-paper-complying-with-nih-mandate/

White paper released to help universities comply with NIH's Public Access policy
February 29th, 2008 by Kaitlin Thaney

Come April 7, NIH-funded researchers will be mandated to archive their work in PubMed Central no later than 12 months post-publication. To help universities prepare for this, Science Commons, SPARC and ARL have jointly released a white paper that explores the copyright-related issues involved with the new NIH Public Access Policy. The paper, "Complying with the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy: Copyright Considerations and Options", arms university provosts, researchers, and administrators with the information needed to fully comply with the mandate, announced this past January.

From SPARC's press release:

"[S]aid Heather Joseph, executive director of SPARC: 'The sooner we can get effective implementing mechanisms in place, the sooner researchers, institutions, and the public can put PubMed Central to work. With April implementation drawing near, this paper will be a great tool to help administrators jumpstart the local planning process.'

[…] 'Congress and the NIH recognize that the Internet makes a difference,' said John Wilbanks, Vice President of Science Commons. 'Faculty authors can no longer sign away their copyrights in a business-as-usual manner when doing so means that their work will never be openly accessible over the Internet. This white paper is a step in making sure authors and universities understand how to move forward with a solid legal footing.'"

The press release and the white paper can be accessed in their entirety on SPARC's Web site, as well as in the Science Commons Reading Room. Many thanks to Michael Carroll for authoring this wonderful resource.
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Kaitlin Thaney
Project Manager
Science Commons, a project of Creative Commons
http://sciencecommons.org
http://creativecommons.org
kaitlin AT creativecommons.org
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