ADA offers guidance on public access to research reports

Washington鈥擳he Association urged the administration to preserve public trust in scholarly journals in crafting new policy on access to federally funded research.

The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is considering ways to enhance public access to federally-funded research reported in scholarly publications including the Journal of the American Dental Association, JADA. The OSTP sees the current National Institutes of Health public access policy as “one potential model” for expansion to all federal science and technology agencies.

“The ADA supports the goal of providing timely health information to the public, particularly when it comes to taxpayer supported research,” Association officials said in a Jan. 21, 2010 letter to the White House science office within the executive office of the president. The OSTP invited comment on public access to research published by scholarly journals.

“However, efforts to hasten such access should not jeopardize the understandability and trustworthiness of the information,” the ADA said. “It should also preserve the public鈥檚 trust in journal publishers as credible, reliable filters of scientific information.”

The Association recommended a public access policy that grants access only to final published versions of research papers, protects intellectual property, preserves the digital image of the final published article and limits access to within 12 months after publication.

Limiting public access to final versions would prevent distribution of pre-publication versions undergoing review and “preserve the integrity of federally supported research.” Under ADA policy, JADA articles are freely available to the public 12 months after publication. See聽www.ada.org/goto/jada.

“We strongly encourage you to incorporate the principles described into any public access policies you may develop,” said the ADA letter signed by Dr. Ronald L. Tankersley, president, and Dr. Kathleen T. O’Loughlin, executive director. “Doing so would expedite public access to publications resulting from federally supported research. It would also maintain the public’s trust in journal publishers as credible, reliable filters of scientific information.”