[DMCA-Activists] Open Letter to Congress from 25 Nobel Laureates

[Seth Johnson]

-------- Original Message --------
 Subject: Open letter to Congress from 25 Nobel Laureates
  Date: Mon, 30 Aug 2004 21:22:10 +0100
  From: Peter Suber <address@hidden>
   To:
address@hidden


An Open Letter to the U.S. Congress
Signed by 25 Nobel Prize Winners


August 26, 2004

Dear Members of Congress:

As scientists and Nobel laureates, we are writing today to
express our strong support for the House Appropriations
Committee's recent direction to NIH to develop an open, taxpayer
access policy requiring that a complete electronic text of any
manuscript reporting work supported by NIH grants or contracts be
supplied to the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central. We
believe the time is now for all Members of Congress to support
this enlightened policy.

Science is the measure of the human race's progress. As
scientists and taxpayers too, we therefore object to barriers
that hinder, delay or block the spread of scientific knowledge
supported by federal tax dollars including our own works.

Thanks to the Internet, today the American people have access to
several billion pages of information, frequently about disease
and medical conditions. However, the published results of
NIH-supported medical research for which they already have paid
are all too often inaccessible to taxpayers.

When a woman goes online to find what treatment options are
available to battle breast cancer, the cutting-edge,
peer-reviewed research remains behind a high-fee barrier.
Families looking to read clinical trial updates for a loved one
with Huntington's disease search in vain because they do not have
a journal subscription. Libraries, physicians, health care
workers, students, researchers and thousands of academic
institutions and companies are hindered by the costs and delays
in making research widely accessible. 

There's no question, open access truly expands shared knowledge
across scientific fields -- it is the best path for accelerating
multi-disciplinary breakthroughs in research.

Journal subscriptions can be prohibitively expensive. In the
single field of biology, journals average around $1,400 and the
price is almost double that in chemistry. These already-high
prices are rising fast, far in excess of inflation and the growth
of library budgets. An individual who cannot obtain access to a
journal in a library may buy copies of solo articles they need,
but that can cost them $30 or more for each article.

The National Institutes of Health has the means today to promote
open access to taxpayer-funded research  through the National
Library of Medicine. If the proposal put forth in the House of
Representatives is adopted, NIH grantees may be expected to
provide to the Library an electronic copy of the final version of
all manuscripts accepted for publication, after peer review, in
legitimate medical and scientific journals. At the time of
publication, NIH would make these reports freely available to all
through their digital library archive, PubMed Central (PMC).

There is widespread acknowledgement that the current model for
scientific publishing is failing us. An increase in the volume of
research output, rising prices and static library budgets mean
that libraries are struggling to purchase subscriptions to all
the scientific journals needed. 

Open access, however, will not mean the end of medical and
scientific journals at all. They will continue to exercise
peer-review over submitted papers as the basis for deciding which
papers to accept for publication, just as they do now.

In addition, since open access will apply only to NIH-funded
research; journals will still contain significant numbers of
articles not covered by this requirement and other articles and
commentary invaluable to the science community. Journals will
continue to be the hallmark of achievement in scientific
research, and we will depend on them.

The trend towards open access is gaining momentum. Japan, France
and the United Kingdom are beginning to establish their own
digital repositories for sharing content with NIH's PubMed
Central. Free access to taxpayer funded research globally may
soon be within grasp, and make possible the freer flow of medical
knowledge that strengthens our capacity to find cures and to
improve lives.

As the undersigned Nobel Laureates, we are committed to open
access. We ask Congress and NIH to ensure that all taxpayers get
their money's worth. Our investment in scientific research is not
well served by a process that limits taxpayer access instead of
expanding it. We specifically ask you to support the House
Appropriations Committee language as well as NIH leadership in
adopting this long overdue reform.

Signed by Twenty Five Nobel Laureates

Name, Category of Nobel Prize Awarded, Year

Peter Agre, Chemistry, 2003
Sidney Altman, Chemistry, 1989
Paul Berg, Chemistry, 1980
Michael Bishop, Physiology or Medicine, 1989
Baruch Blumberg, Physiology or Medicine, 1976
Gunter Blobel, Physiology or Medicine, 1999
Paul Boyer, Chemistry, 1997
Sydney Brenner, Physiology or Medicine, 2002
Johann Deisenhofer, Chemistry, 1988
Edmond Fischer, Physiology or Medicine, 1992
Paul Greengard, Physiology or Medicine, 2000
Leland Hartwell, Physiology or Medicine, 2001
Robert Horvitz, Physiology or Medicine, 2002
Eric Kandel, Physiology or Medicine, 2000
Arthur Kornberg, Physiology or Medicine, 1959
Roderick MacKinnon, Chemistry, 2003
Kary Mullis, Chemistry, 1993
Ferid Murad, Physiology or Medicine, 1998
Joseph Murray, Physiology or Medicine, 1990
Marshall Nirenberg, Physiology or Medicine, 1968
Stanley Prusiner, Physiology or Medicine, 1997
Richard Roberts, Physiology or Medicine, 1993
Hamilton Smith, Physiology or Medicine, 1978
Harold Varmus, Physiology or Medicine, 1989
James Watson, Physiology or Medicine, 1962

Press Contact:
Dr. Richard J. Roberts 
(Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine,1993) 
Tel: (978) 927-3382 
Fax: (978) 921-1527 
Email: address@hidden