Techdirt. Stories filed under "nih" Easily digestible tech news... http://www.techdirt.com/ en-us Techdirt. Stories filed under "nih"http://www.techdirt.com/images/td-88x31.gifhttp://www.techdirt.com/ Mon, 16 Jul 2012 22:01:00 PDT UK Plans To Make All Government-Funded Research Free To The Public Immediately Upon Publication Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120716/03170319706/uk-plans-to-make-all-government-funded-research-free-to-public-immediately-upon-publication.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120716/03170319706/uk-plans-to-make-all-government-funded-research-free-to-public-immediately-upon-publication.shtml one-year after it's been published. That gives journals one-year of exclusivity to profit off of the work before it's more widely available. There have been some efforts to block government agencies from requiring such open access, as well as proposals to expand it to other agencies beyond the NIH. We also recently wrote about a proposal in New York to do something similar, but with six-month of exclusivity, rather than a year.

Of course, some people take offense to any such exclusivity, seeing as we're still talking about taxpayer-funded research. Over in the UK, it appears that they're going to go completely in favor of open access, with a plan requiring immediate free access to any taxpayer-funded research. That's big news. Under the scheme, research papers that describe work paid for by the British taxpayer will be free online for universities, companies and individuals to use for any purpose, wherever they are in the world. The plan will be rolled out over the next two years, but by 2014, it sounds like all such research in the UK will be widely available for free.

Unfortunately, not all of the details sounds as good. The proposal tries to make the journals okay with this by forcing researchers to pay an "article processing charge" for each paper they publish, and it sounds like some of those funds go back to the publishers. But, of course, that's putting more of the cost on the universities that fund the research, and there's reasonable fear that this will lead those universities to ration out how many publications are "allowed." Many open access advocates preferred a different plan, that still involved academics doing deals with journals, but which also allowed them to publish the works online. The publishers, of course, weren't happy with that plan.

More open access is definitely a good thing, but I worry about any sort of plan that involves an explicit attempt to prop up a legacy industry that doesn't want to adapt. That seems very likely to create economic waste and to be abused at the cost of the public.

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]]> groundbreaking http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120716/03170319706 Wed, 23 May 2012 03:05:00 PDT White House Petition Demanding Open Access Requirements For Federally Funded Research Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120521/12463519005/white-house-petition-demanding-open-access-requirements-federally-funded-research.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120521/12463519005/white-house-petition-demanding-open-access-requirements-federally-funded-research.shtml open access for federally funded research. Currently, NIH has a program that requires any of the research that receives its funds to be available via public open access databases a year after its published elsewhere. While this still allows federally funded research to be locked up under a questionable copyright for a year, it's certainly better than locking it up for eternity. And while there have been some unfortunate efforts to ban NIH and other government agencies from requiring such conditions, many in academia favor such information sharing.

There is currently a White House petition asking the government to require such free access to scientific journal articles coming out of taxpayer-funded research. The Obama administration has indicated interest in doing this in the past, but has not done so. Forcing the administration to respond to the petition may help nudge them in the right direction. The petition still needs a lot more signatures, though, so get signing.

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]]> sign-on http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120521/12463519005 Thu, 9 Feb 2012 15:05:00 PST Rep. Doyle Introduces Bill To Provide Public Access To Publicly Funded Research Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120209/13042317716/rep-doyle-introduces-bill-to-provide-public-access-to-publicly-funded-research.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120209/13042317716/rep-doyle-introduces-bill-to-provide-public-access-to-publicly-funded-research.shtml close off open access to government funded research. This is an important issue that we've been following for years. Government funded research means that taxpayer money funded that research... and yet because of ridiculous policies by gatekeeper journals, the public has almost no access to that information. The whole situation is ridiculous. The journals get free labor: they never pay for articles (and, in some fields, academics actually have to pay the journal to get published), they never pay for the peer review. So they get free content and free editing. Then, as part of getting published, they require the researchers to give the journal their copyrights and usually bar them from using that same research elsewhere. Finally, they then sell these journal subscriptions at insane rates: often tens of thousands of dollars a year for a subscription. Only large university libraries and research institutions will pay those fees. It's a huge scam and it's why a ton of academics are boycotting publishing giant Elsevier, (infamous for its fake journal division).

The issue in these bills is that there has been a movement to require any research that is federally funded (taxpayer funded) to be placed in an open access repository one year after it was published. The National Institute of Health (NIH) who funds billions in research every year, has had this policy going for a few years (though journals have even tried nasty tricks, like requiring academics to pay them to "deposit" their own papers into these open repositories). This kind of rule makes plenty of sense: we're talking about publicly funded research after all. It should be open to the public. Giving the journals a one-year headstart on publishing the papers seems like more than enough for them to make money (again, from the "free" content they get).

Except... the journals hate this because they want their lifetime-plus monopoly on this information (which, I'll emphasize once again that they do not pay for). So they've been pushing various bills that would outlaw such open access requirements. And, somehow, they got Darrell Issa to back the latest version of this bill.

Thankfully, however, Rep. Mike Doyle -- who has a long history of being really good on copyright issues -- has introduced a counter bill to Issa's bill (pdf) called the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2012. It really is the mirror image of the Issa bill.
the Federal Government funds basic and applied research with the expectation that new ideas and discoveries that result from the research, if shared and effectively disseminated, will advance science and improve the lives and welfare of people of the United States and around the world; and the Internet makes it possible for this information to be promptly available to every scientist, physician, educator, and citizen at home, in school, or in a library.
The bill would require that all federal agencies establish policies that encourage open and free access to federally funded research. One hopes that Rep. Issa will rethink his position on his bill, and recognize that Doyle's bill is much more aligned with Issa's stated goal (and long-shown commitment) to more open access to government information.

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]]> good-for-him http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120209/13042317716 Mon, 9 Jan 2012 15:10:00 PST Unfortunate: 'Open' Advocate Darrell Issa Sponsoring Bill That Will Close Off Open Access To Gov't Funded Research Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120107/02415417327/unfortunate-open-advocate-darrell-issa-sponsoring-bill-that-will-close-off-open-access-to-govt-funded-research.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20120107/02415417327/unfortunate-open-advocate-darrell-issa-sponsoring-bill-that-will-close-off-open-access-to-govt-funded-research.shtml required to be open to the public. After all, the public paid for it. And, in fact, a few years back, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) instituted a program that said that any research funded by NIH had to be offered in an open access manner by 1 year after its publication date. The "issue" here is that the big academic journals have the greatest scam in the world running: they don't have to pay writers (and, in some fields, the writers actually have to pay them) who submit their papers. They don't have to pay other academics to do peer review, as that's done for free. So all of their content isn't paid for. But... they do require that the writers hand over their copyright, and then lock it up in journals that are crazy expensive -- and totally inaccessible to the average person who isn't affiliated with a university library willing to shell out the cash.

That's not good for science or innovation. And, when it's on federally funded research, it's almost criminal.

So, the NIH had this open access requirement, which was then augmented by a Congressional requirement. The 1 year still lets journals get crazy monopoly rents... but even then, many journals have sought ways to make these open access requirements difficult. For example, if you click that link, you can see how the American Psychology Association tried to charge the academics who wrote for it $2,500 to "deposit" their publication to PubMed to satisfy the NIH requirement.

So, for years, the big publishing houses have been trying to get Congress to pass a law to lock up federally funded research. In the past, this effort was led by Rep. John Conyers -- who has received lots of campaign contributions from the big publishers. A few years ago, the Obama administration actually suggested it was leaning in the other direction -- and actually requiring all federally funded research to be open access, rather than just NIH. That would be huge... but of course, the big publishers won't allow that to happen. They even made the ridiculous argument that open access requirements would harm transparency in government. Yeah. Don't even try to understand it, because it doesn't make sense.

Tragically, it appears that a new version of this bill has been introduced... called the Research Works Act. It's a pretty short bill, but here's the key part:
No Federal agency may adopt, implement, maintain, continue, or otherwise engage in any policy, program, or other activity that--

(1) causes, permits, or authorizes network dissemination of any private-sector research work without the prior consent of the publisher of such work; or

(2) requires that any actual or prospective author, or the employer of such an actual or prospective author, assent to network dissemination of a private-sector research work.
Note the use of "private-sector research work." There's a definition for that:
PRIVATE-SECTOR RESEARCH WORK- The term 'private-sector research work' means an article intended to be published in a scholarly or scientific publication, or any version of such an article, that is not a work of the United States Government (as defined in section 101 of title 17, United States Code), describing or interpreting research funded in whole or in part by a Federal agency and to which a commercial or nonprofit publisher has made or has entered into an arrangement to make a value-added contribution, including peer review or editing. Such term does not include progress reports or raw data outputs routinely required to be created for and submitted directly to a funding agency in the course of research.
This is tragically bad drafting in that depending on how you interpret the commas, it almost certainly means that the NIH requirements and anything similar would be barred. That is, it appears to define federally funded research as "private sector research work," if it's going to be published by a private journal. The Association of American Publishers sure was quick to celebrate the bill, making it clear that it was exactly what they wanted: a ban on forcing works they publish into open access models. Of course, the language is purposely vague so that if you misread it, you might think it doesn't include government-funded works. That's not true. It simply doesn't include government produced works, which are public domain by definition and couldn't be thus limited anyway.

Furthermore, the bill appears to create a new copyright-like "right" for publishers outside of copyright itself. That is, it grants the final say in permission to the publisher, rather than the copyright holder. So, even in a case where an author retains the copyright, or retains distribution rights, this bill could potentially grant the publisher extra rights out of thin air.

The real tragedy here? The bill's sponsor is Rep. Darrell Issa -- who's based much of his recent political career on the claim that he wants more open government. Yes, the same Darrell Issa who put forth the SOPA/PIPA alternative, the OPEN Act, with its awesome open website that allows for direct feedback on the bill. And he's behind the open access to Congressional hearings video that we just talked about.

This bill seems to go against everything that he's said he stands for on related issues, and people are definitely noting how odd this seems.

There's no two ways about it. This is a bad and dangerous bill that will only serve to lock up important, taxpayer-funded research. As we've discussed in detail in the past, such locking up of research does tremendous harm to important scientific research, puts people in harm's way and slows down innovation. It's tremendously disappointing that Rep. Darrell Issa would be behind such a bill. It really does seem to go against everything that he stands for.

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]]> tragic http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20120107/02415417327 Wed, 8 Dec 2010 07:21:13 PST NIH Won't Let Others Supply Life Saving Drug Even Though Genzyme Can't Make Enough Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101207/18030712173/nih-wont-let-others-supply-life-saving-drug-even-though-genzyme-cant-make-enough.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20101207/18030712173/nih-wont-let-others-supply-life-saving-drug-even-though-genzyme-cant-make-enough.shtml produce Fabrazyme, a drug that treats Fabry disease. Fabry disease is an enzyme deficiency that can create very serious problems in those who have it -- including kidney failure and heart attacks. Genzyme holds the patent on Fabrazyme, but has a problem: it can't produce enough of the drug. That means people die. A group of Fabry patients petitioned the NIH to see if other companies could be allowed to produce just a little more Fabrazyme. They didn't ask to break the patent. All they wanted was to let others make the drug, and pay Genzyme a royalty. On top of this, it's worth noting that the key research for the development for Fabrazyme wasn't actually done by Genzyme, but was done by the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and was financed with taxpayer money from the NIH.

At the time, we doubted the petition would be approved -- and indeed, the NIH has rejected the petition. An opening was left for an appeal, if another petition is filed by a company that wants to make Fabrazyme, rather than the patients (you know, the folks actually suffering). As the statement of Robert Weissman from Public Citizen makes clear, this is a ridiculous situation:
Why is NIH resorting to legal gymnastics to avoid exercising its legal authority to ensure an adequate supply of an important medicine? NIH agrees Genzyme is failing to produce an adequate supply of the important medicine Fabrazyme. It is plain that removing the patent monopoly on the drug is a necessary condition to enabling other potential manufacturers to enter the market. Yet NIH chooses to deny a request to issue open licenses for the Fabrazyme patents -- a request for which it has undisputed legal authority -- on the Alice-in-Wonderland, self-justifying grounds that there are as yet no competing suppliers. Of course there are no competing suppliers -- why would any firm try to enter a market it believed closed by a patent monopoly?


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]]> patents-costing-lives http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20101207/18030712173 Thu, 12 Feb 2009 11:58:43 PST Rep. Conyers, Once Again, Trying To Lock Up Federally Funded Research Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090212/0335043743.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090212/0335043743.shtml pay the journals to get their content published. On top of that, the "peers" who review the works aren't paid for their work either. In other words, these journals get a ton of free labor... and sometimes that labor pays them. And, then, on top of that, they charge ridiculously high prices for anyone to subscribe, claim the copyright on all submitted works, and are incredibly aggressive in enforcing that copyright. An academic I knew, at one point had to consider doing an experiment a second time just to get the same results, because mentioning the earlier results of his own study might violate the copyright of the journal. And, remember, much of this is happening with research that was funded by taxpayers.

So, Congress decided that any research that was funded by NIH (which funds about $30 billion in research each year) had to also be openly published one-year after it was published in the journal. It's hard to see how this damages the journals at all. They still retain a significant monopoly right on the works -- and have a year's head start. Yet, the journal publishers have been screaming bloody murder, and even trying to force academics to pay thousands of dollars to cover the "cost" of republishing the article in an open archiving database.

And, of course, those publishers have been complaining like crazy to Congress. Last year, Rep. Conyers (who also recently introduced the RIAA's preferred legislation, and was heavily backed by the American Intellectual Property Law Association in his most recent election) introduced some legislation to repeal this requirement, though the legislation went nowhere fast. However, he's wasted very little time introducing identical legislation this year.
Right before Conyers brought this legislation back, Stanford Professor John Willinsky published a well-worth reading article explaining why the publishers' objections to the requirement to openly publish makes no sense. Their general argument is that this is the government interfering with private businesses. But, of course, that's not true at all. As Willinsky notes, the only reason that particular private business exists as it does is because the government interfered in the form of giving them copyright:
What is held to be "unfair" in the bill is government interference with the publisher's exclusive ownership over research. This is not, however, a case of keeping the government's clumsy hand off a free market. The scholarly publishing market depends on government interference in the first instance. The government allows publishers to exercise monopoly rights over this research through copyright law, a form of market interference....
Furthermore, Willinsky mentions the original, Constitutional purpose behind said copyright: "To promote the progress of science and the useful arts..." Congress gets to determine what promotes the progress, and if it's shown that open publication of publicly funded works promotes that progress, then the journals should have no argument at all. But, argue they will... so, Public Knowledge and The Alliance for Taxpayer Access are both asking people to write their elected representatives to oppose this attempt to once again lock up the very research that we all funded as taxpayers.

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]]> isn't-that-a-problem? http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20090212/0335043743 Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:55:12 PDT Congress Not Shutting Down Open Access To NIH-Funded Research... Yet Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080916/1925432287.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080916/1925432287.shtml ridiculous hurdles in the way of researchers. The whole thing is actually a bit sickening. The NIH funds nearly $30 billion in research every year, using taxpayer money to pay for basic research, and these journals get free labor (researchers don't get paid by the journal, peer reviewers don't get paid by the journal) and then get paid to take the copyright away from the researcher (yes, the researcher has to hand over the copyright and still pay the journal for the privilege of publishing the content). This is a complete appropriation of taxpayer funded basic research that could be used to derive important advances in medicine and science -- and it's locked up by journals who want to protect an old business model.

So it caught our eye when a bunch of readers started submitting an Ars Technica piece about a bill from John Conyers, called The Fair Copyright in Research Works Act, which would forbid government agencies from making any research grants contingent on the work being published. As the writeup notes, this actually appears to have been more of a turf battle, where the House's subcommittee on IP was annoyed that the whole NIH thing didn't include them in the process. The complaints from publishers is fairly bogus. After all, they're receiving a ton of free benefits from federally funded research, and are whining that they can't come up with a business model and now need the gov't to protect their old business model (which actually stifles the dissemination of knowledge). Passing such a bill would be a horrible precedent, which is why so many folks are up in arms about it (without even getting into the bad unintended consequences).

However, for now, it looks like folks up in arms over this missed the fact that the bill is pretty much dead in the water this year. Right after the hearing last week, it was made clear that nothing is going to happen on it this year, and the bill's own sponsor, Rep. Conyers, seems a bit confused over his own support of the bill (he seems much more interested in the turf war over who has a say in the matter, than in what the bill actually means). That doesn't mean it's not worth paying attention to, as next year it could come back. But, for now, it's not going anywhere.

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]]> but-keep-watching http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080916/1925432287 Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:03:00 PDT Research Journals Make It As Difficult As Possible To Openly Publish Gov't Funded Research Mike Masnick http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080729/0206121824.shtml http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080729/0206121824.shtml
Witness this bizarre story, relayed by William Patry, about the American Psychological Association's assault on a Congressional requirement that any NIH-funded research get published openly a year after its published in a journal. Let's be entirely clear here: we're talking about publicly (tax-payer) funded research that gets published in a journal. The journal does not pay for the research at all. The research is paid for by the NIH. Much of the salaries of the academics involved are often paid for by public institutions as well. On top of that, the journals do not reimburse the academic for publishing the research. The journals also do not reimburse the "peers" who peer review the research. In other words, these journals contribute very little to the publication, and get tremendous benefits for free (often at the expense of taxpayers). And, then, of course, the journals claim copyright over the papers and charge insane fees to subscribe to the journals that publish them.

Recently, Congress realized this was a problem, and ordered that all NIH-funded research (and that's hardly peanuts: the NIH funds nearly $30 billion in research per year) be published online in the PubMed Central archive, a year after publication in a journal. This still granted the journals plenty of time to get a return on whatever little "investment" they put into the publication. Most university libraries would still pay the exorbitant fees for the journal, but this tax-payer funded research would then be available to others after one year for free.

The American Psychological Association had other ideas, however. While it's not disobeying the rule, it is taking a rather draconian approach to it. It's decided that it will charge the institution the academic comes from $2,500 for "depositing" the paper with PubMed. It will not allow the researchers to submit the paper themselves (and avoid the fee). It also will not let the researcher submit the paper to any other open research publication and (of course) will not let the author retain the copyright on the publications. While it appears that the APA is rethinking some of this policy thanks to some of the outcry, it shows yet another old school academic journal clinging to not just an outdated business model, but one that actively stifles academic sharing of research and cross-pollination of ideas.

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]]> bad-news-for-everyone http://www.techdirt.com/comment_rss.php?sid=20080729/0206121824