Consistent with a new federal policy, the James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program and the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program will require open access to published reesearch findsings of their funded researchers, beginning with new grants that will be awarded in July 2008.

After passage of Federal Law PL 110-161, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is requiring their funded researchers to submit or have submitted for them by the publisher, an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed journal articles to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central, for public availability no later than 12 months after the official date of publication. The goal of the new NIH Public Access Policy is to ensure that others have access to the published results of NIH-funded research to help advance science and improve human health. NIH previously asked researchers to do so on a voluntary basis, while there has been a growing trend among many high profile philanthropic grant programs requiring open access as a condition of funding to reduce the cycle time of scientific discovery. "This is consistent with FL CURED goals of increased collaboration, communication and information sharing," said Dr. Claes Wahlestedt, Director of Neuroscience Discovery at Scripps Florida and Chair of the Florida Center for Universal Research to Eradicate Disease (FL CURED), a think tank that makes recommendations for expediting the discovery of cures.

Before the Biomedical Research Council (BRAC) advised the Florida Department of Health to adopt the new federal policy, they invited John Wilbanks, Executive Director for Science Commons, to make a presentation on open science principles, also referred to as open access or open innovation principles. "The mission of Science Commons is to create an open science culture that accelerates the research cycle-the continuous production and reuse of knowledge-at the heart of scientific methodology,"said Wilbanks.

"Since publication of research findings in peer-reviewed journals is the gold standard by which research results are gauged, and because it is the primary method for the desemination of new discoveries and insights into the perplexing challenges posed by disease, it is the most obvious place to start," according to Dr. Richard Bookman, Chair of BRAC and Vice Provost for Research at the University of Miami. "The Council will continue to look into the even more innovative but perhaps more challenging advances in the open access movement, and formulate additional recommendations for the future," he said.

Other open access principles promoted by Science Commons include open access to data, databases, and materials and tools developed through funded research.

For more information, visit the linked websites above. Questions or comments can be emailed to Chuck Wells , Assistant Director, Office of Public Health Research at the Florida Deparment of Health.

Consistent with a new federal policy, the James & Esther King Biomedical Research Program and the Bankhead-Coley Cancer Research Program will require open access to published research findings of their funded researchers, beginning with new grants that will be awarded in July 2008.