JOINSTM response to request for information on the National Institutes of Health draft Public Access Policy
August 19, 2024
STM response to Request for Information on the National Institutes of Health
Draft Public Access Policy (89 FR 51537)
Thank you for the opportunity to comment on the “the National Institutes of Health Draft
Public Access Policy” (“draft policy”), as issued in the Request for Information 89 FR 51537.
STM is pleased a number of our comments on the Public Access Plan were considered in the
development of the draft policy. In particular, we appreciate that the draft policy provides
flexibility for implementation in several respects, recognizing, as we noted in our response to
the RFI on the NIH Public Access Plan, that there is not one best route to providing access. That
said, below we provide recommendations for improvement of the plan to ensure it fully
achieves NIH’s goals for public access, whilst minimizing research burdens, respecting academic
freedom, and ensuring a vibrant and well-functioning ecosystem for trusted scholarly
communication.
STM stands for advancing open and trusted research, where researchers and the rest of society
can rely on information that is trusted, accessible, linked, and searchable in perpetuity. Our
members therefore are committed to continuing to make needed advancements in systems
and infrastructure and investments in people to ensure the quality, integrity, and persistence of
the scholarly record to support research.