Science journals battle an NIH proposal that calls for free access to federally funded research.

eastbayexpress.com | The Politicians Weigh In | 2004-09-29: "In the battle with big business over access to publicly funded research articles, Berkeley scientist Michael Eisen and his Public Library of Science have some unlikely allies: conservative Republicans. Meanwhile, representing the publishing industry against government intervention is Pat Schroeder, a former liberal congresswoman.

Earlier this month, the National Institutes of Health, citing the skyrocketing costs of journal subscriptions, announced its intention to make all NIH-funded research articles freely available to the public six months after publication. The articles would be posted on the National Library of Medicine's Internet repository, PubMed Central (PubMedCentral.nih.gov), launched by PLoS cofounder Harold Varmus when he headed the NIH under President Clinton.

The plan faces fierce opposition from the Association of American Publishers (AAP), a trade group that Schroeder serves as president. Its members, which include both commercial and nonprofit journal publishers, have complained it could put them out of business because they would lose thousands of subscribers.
But industry critics have hailed the move as a welcome change. Among them are patients' rights groups such as the Genetic Alliance, which represents people with inherited conditions. In a letter to a House subcommittee, alliance president Sharon Terry wrote: 'This access is critical for the thousands [with] rare diseases -- clinicians are unable to keep up with information on 6,000 rare diseases, and patients must be the bridge to new knowledge.'

The new NIH policy got off the ground with the help of two conservative congressmen, Ralph Regula of Ohio and Ernie Istook of Oklahoma, who inserted language championing public access into an appropriations report in May. "The people who are so much against socialized medicine are all for socialized publishing," chides Marc Brodsky, executive council chair of the AAP's division of professional and scholarly publishing...."