HOUSE BACKS TAXPAYER-FUNDED RESEARCH ACCESS

Final Appropriations Bill Mandates Free Access to NIH Research Findings

Washington, D.C. - July 20, 2007 - In what advocates hailed as a major
advance for scientific communication, the U.S. House of Representatives
yesterday approved a measure directing the National Institutes of Health
(NIH) to provide free public online access to agency-funded research
findings within 12 months of their publication in a peer-reviewed
journal. With broad bipartisan support, the House passed the provision
as part of the FY2008 Labor, HHS, and Education Appropriations Bill.

"The House has affirmed the principle that broad sharing of publicly
funded research findings on the Internet is an essential component of
our nation's investment in science," said Heather Joseph, Executive
Director of SPARC (the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources
Coalition), and a leader of the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA).
"This action paves the way for all scientists and citizens to access,
use, and benefit from the results of publicly funded biomedical
research."

"We're pleased by Congress's recognition of the fundamental rationale
for public access - that better-informed patients, clinicians, and
researchers will mean better health outcomes," said Sharon Terry,
President of the Genetic Alliance and an ATA activist. "The time has
come to sweep away unnecessary barriers to understanding and treating
disease. The Genetic Alliance thanks and congratulates the House of
Representatives for taking this vital step."

The current NIH Public Access Policy, implemented in 2005 as a voluntary
measure, has resulted in the deposit of less than 5% of eligible
research by individual investigators.

In a recent letter to Congress, 26 Nobel Laureates called for enactment
of mandatory NIH public access, noting that, "requiring compliance is
not a punitive measure, but rather a simple step to ensure that
everyone, including scientists themselves, will reap the benefits that
public access can provide. We have seen this amply demonstrated in other
innovative efforts within the NIH - most notably with the database that
contains the outcome of the Human Genome Project."

"The coalition of support for the NIH policy is extremely broad," added
Joseph. "This critical step was achieved as a result of the vision and
collective effort of patient groups, scientists, researchers,
publishers, students, and consumers who registered their support."

A similar measure has been approved by the Senate Appropriations
Committee and will be considered by the full Senate later this summer.

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The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient, academic,
research, and publishing organizations that supports open public access
to the results of federally funded research. The Alliance was formed in
2004 to urge that peer-reviewed articles stemming from taxpayer-funded
research become fully accessible and available online at no extra cost
to the American public. Details on the ATA may be found at
http://www.taxpayeraccess.org.