Professional and scholarly publisher members of the Association of American Publishers (AAP) have raised concerns that implementation of the National Institute of Health (NIH) mandate on private-sector journal articles will undermine copyright protection for scientific works. In comments submitted for a public hearing on March 20, the members have urged for more effective consultations before the policy is implemented.
The NIH is currently holding a public hearing and is soliciting comments from interested parties. It, however, plans to move ahead with the implementation of the mandate on April 7 as written, before considering all the comments it will receive.
In its March 17 response to NIH's request for comments on the implementation of the new public access policy, the AAP/PSP outlined some of its specific copyright concerns, including the piracy of US government-funded research abroad. The organisations recommended the NIH to develop specific safeguards and best practices to ensure that the day-to-day implementation of the policy adheres to its stated objectives. The aim is to see to it that the implementation does not undermine copyright or the incentives for publishers to invest in the peer-reviewing, publishing, distribution and archiving of scientific articles.
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