An urgent call for action has been issued on ACRLog about upcoming House and Senate votes on Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bills that will determine whether NIH-funded researchers are required to make their final manuscripts publicly accessible within twelve months of publication.
Here's an excerpt from the posting:
We need your help to keep the momentum going. The full House of Representatives and the full Senate will vote on their respective measures this summer. The House is expected to convene on Tuesday, July 17. We’re asking that you contact your US Representative and your US Senators by phone or fax as soon as possible and no later than Monday afternoon. Urge them to maintain the Appropriations Committee language. (Find talking points and contact info for your legislators in the ALA Legislative Action Center. It is entirely possible that an amendment will be made on the floor of the House to delete the language in the NIH policy.
Want to know more? Listen to an interview with Heather Joseph of SPARC on the ALA Washington Office District Dispatch blog. Find background on the issue along with tips on communicating effectively with your legislators in the last two issues of ACRL’s Legislative Update and at the Alliance for Taxpayer Access website.
Peter Suber has issued a similar call on Open Access News. Here it is in full:
Tell Congress to support an OA mandate at the NIH
Let me take the unusual step of repeating a call to action from yesterday in case it got buried in the avalanche of news.
The House Appropriations Committee approved language establishing an OA mandate at the NIH. The full House is scheduled to vote on the appropriations bill containing that language on Tuesday, July 17.
Publishers are lobbying hard to delete this language. If you are a US citizen and support public access for publicly-funded research, please ask your representative to support this bill, and to oppose any attempt to amend or strike the language. Contact your representative now, before you forget.
Time is short. Offices are closed on the weekend, but emails and faxes will go through. Send an email or fax right now or telephone before Monday afternoon.
Because the Senate Appropriations Committee approved the same language in June, you should contact your Senators with the same message. But the vote by the full House is in three days, while the vote by the full Senate has not yet been scheduled.
For help in composing your message, see
- the talking points from SPARC
- the open letter to Congress from 26 US Nobel laureates in science
Then spread the word!
