Accessing scientific research
A little brouhaha is kicking up in Congress. Here’s the background:
The National Institute of Health funds research into scientific and medical issues. The scientists then, typically, submit their research papers to peer-reviewed journals for publication. The peer-review process is designed to check the integrity and reliability of the research findings. If the paper passes the peer review, it is published and available to the public.
At least in theory. In reality, accessing research journals can be difficult for non-academics, and can be nearly impossible for anyone not located in cities with major research Universities. Because of this, a push began about ten years ago to create an online repository of reviewed and published articles that were the result of research funded by NIH.
The two primary concerns that needed to be considered were the need for the journals to have an economic incentive to continue to fund the peer review and publication, and the need to continue to have a working peer review system for major research projects.
After a long period of study and conversation with various affected parties, the NIH created an electronic repository and asked researchers to voluntarily deposit their papers after a specified time had passed from the original publication of the paper.
Only a very small percentage of papers were actually deposited, however, and it turned out that one of the reasons for the low rate was confusion and uncertainty on the part of the researchers over whether their copyright agreements with the journal publishers would actually allow them to do so.
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