FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS REGARDING APA S ONGOING EFFORTS TO IMPLEMENT THE NEW PUBLIC ACCESS POLICY OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH (NIH) Q1: What is the new NIH Public Access Policy, and when did it go into effect? A: The new NIH Public Access Policy requires all investigators to submit or have submitted for them an electronic version of their final, peer-reviewed manuscript resulting from NIH-funded research to the National Library of Medicine s PubMed Central (PMC) upon the manuscript s acceptance for publication. This is so the manuscript can be made publicly available no later than 12 months after the actual date of publication. The official NIH policy, which implements a provision in the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2008, is entitled Revised Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research (NOT-OD-08-033) and took effect on April 7, 2008. Prior to this time, compliance with the NIH Public Access Policy was voluntary on the part of NIH-funded investigators and publishers. Q2: Does APA support the concept of providing the public with access to the findings of scientific research? A: Yes, APA strongly supports public access to scientific findings, especially when the research is funded by federal agencies, such as NIH, with taxpayer dollars (see Q10 for specific APA public access activities). An important distinction needs to be drawn, however, between making research findings available and making available the actual published version of a research report. The latter represents an investment beyond that provided by the federal government publishers add immense value through such functions as editorial selection, peer review, copyediting, and design production. Accordingly, APA strongly endorses the public access model Congress established last year for the National Science Foundation (NSF) in which authors are required to submit the final project report of their NSF-funded research, along with citations of published research documents, for posting on the publicly accessible NSF Web site. In effect, this model makes research findings freely available to the public in a timely manner, while providing ready access to the resulting publications. Q3: What is the anticipated impact, if any, of the new NIH Public Access Policy on authors, journals, and APA in general? A: The NIH policy requirement that the final, peer-reviewed manuscript be deposited in PMC applies to about one third of APA s accepted manuscript submissions. Most of APA s authors and the articles in its 52 scholarly journals would not be affected by the policy. However, it is likely to exert an increasingly adverse impact on the APA s finances over time because the administration and infrastructure of the peer-review process, even with the reviews being conducted by volunteers, is a costly activity. The costs relate to the administration of the peer-review system and the infrastructure
of it. These costs include honoraria for Editors and Associate Editors, salaries of manuscript coordinators, editorial office expenses, and programming and maintenance costs of the journal manuscript tracking system. On average, for every article that appears in an APA journal, there are five manuscripts requiring peer reviews. After peer review, the accepted manuscript then goes through a production process to make it ready for final publication. In the end, the total cost of each published article averages $7,190. At present, the costs associated with peer review and publication production are offset by fees from licenses and subscriptions to APA publications and databases (mainly from libraries). With the increasing availability of free, worldwide access through PMC to a significant portion of the content of APA journals and databases, there is the strong possibility that APA licensing and subscription revenues will decline over time. The extent of this decline is currently unclear, but it has at least the potential to be significant. Q4: Is the NIH policy likely to affect all scientific society publishers equally? A: Most scientific society publishers share concerns about copyright infringement arising from implementation of the NIH policy. Specifically, publishers for the first time ever are essentially being made to forego their copyright interests without just compensation for their investments in the advancement of science through the dissemination of scientific research findings. Publishers differ, however, in their assessment of the likely impact of the policy s embargo period on their publishing programs. Some of the biomedical research society publishers will likely be able to collect sufficient fees during the 12 months between the date of publication and PMC posting of the manuscript to cover their expenses and thus sustain their publishing programs. This is possible in instances where the shelf life of the science reported in their publication(s) falls within the 12- month period of the embargo. However, a 12-month shelf life is not the experience for the vast majority of publishers of social and behavioral science research and perhaps least of all for APA. The cutting-edge research in psychology that APA publishes is rarely obsolete within a year and may have a shelf life of 5 to 10 years. Moreover, only 15% of the eventual lifetime usage of APA journal articles in the form of downloads occurs within the first year after publication. It is also important to note that the dynamics and economics of publishing and, thus, the impact of any open access plan will be different for different journals. Some of the more well-known journals (JAMA, New England Journal of Medicine, Nature) have either atypically high numbers of subscribers or large amounts of paid advertising from pharmaceutical companies and other commercial concerns. Many also assess submission and/or publication fees of various sorts to help underwrite their expenses.
Q5: What are the anticipated consequences of the reduced revenue to APA? A: APA relies on revenue from its publications and databases to support its mission to advance psychology in such areas as science, education, practice, and public interest and a public communications program that creates programs and initiatives that bring psychological science findings to the public in highly accessible ways (Web sites, public information brochures, etc.). Unlike many associations, membership dues for APA account for only about 15% of the operating budget. Most of APA s income is from publications activities and other sources of non-dues revenue. A loss of publications revenue could lead to a significant reduction in the ability of APA to fulfill its mission. In addition, the revenue from APA s publications and databases helps to subsidize small, highly specialized journals with low subscription levels but that are nevertheless valuable to many psychologists and other behavioral scientists. A significant loss of revenue would therefore increase the probability that some journals would no longer be viable, which would reduce the number of publishing outlets available to researchers. Q6: Is it permissible for publication fees to be charged to NIH grants? A: Yes, according to guidance provided by NIH regarding the implementation of the Public Access Policy: The NIH will reimburse publication costs, including author fees, for grants and contracts on three conditions: (1) such costs incurred are actual, allowable, and reasonable to advance the objectives of the award; (2) costs are charged consistently regardless of the source of support; and (3) all other applicable rules on allowability of costs are met. NIH has yet to provide guidance as to whether investigators or institutions would be responsible for paying the publication fee after the grant period has expired (as well as any no-cost extensions) and what mechanisms there would be for doing so. Historically, most social and behavioral science publishers have not assessed publication fees. As a result, investigators in these areas have not typically included such expenses in their grant budgets. One consequence of the NIH Public Access Policy may be to force a change in this approach, bringing social and behavioral science in line with other fields of science in which publication fees are more routinely included in grant budgets. Q7: What type of publication fees do scientific society publishers currently receive from authors with NIH-funded research? Does APA currently assess any publication fees for its journals program? A: APA has a long tradition of not charging authors who publish in its journals, with the single exception of charges for color reproduction, which are shared between APA and authors. APA has done this to help ensure that the association s journals reflect the wide diversity in the behavioral and social sciences field by including new investigators and others who might have limited or no outside funding. This is in marked contrast to the article charges assessed by many biomedical research
societies, which may range from $750 to as much as $3500 per article (plus color fees as applicable) for the average 10-page article. It is noteworthy that NIH pays about $30 million per year in publishing fees and other subsidies for publications based on research funded by the agency. Q8: Why did APA recently announce a new publication charge for NIH-funded articles on its Web site and then withdraw the notice? A: Internal discussions, which were informed by consultation with NIH officials, had been ongoing for months at APA concerning how best to implement the new NIH Public Access Policy. Several options were under consideration, but no decision had been made, and there had been no detailed discussion of any options with the relevant APA governance groups. Thus, the posting that announced a new publication fee on the APA Web site was premature. Q9: What process will APA use to decide on its policy regarding implementation of the NIH Public Access Policy and whether or not a publication fee might be instituted for NIH-funded articles? A: With the adoption of the new NIH Public Access Policy, it has become necessary for APA to carefully consider whether it will need to assess a publication fee to help offset some of the expected loss in revenue from subscriptions and licenses for its publications and databases. This fall, APA s Publications and Communications Board (P&C) will examine the broad impact of the NIH Public Access Policy on authors, the APA journals program, and the association as a whole and will make recommendations to the APA Board of Directors with respect to financial and operational considerations. In so doing, the P&C Board will also take into account any policy implementation changes announced by NIH following the agency s review of the many public comments received (which is expected by September 30, 2008). Thus, the NIH Public Access Policy is still a work in progress for all stakeholders involved, including NIH, investigators, institutions, and publishers. Q10: Aside from its compliance with the new NIH Public Access Policy, what other ways is APA facilitating the public s access to psychological science? A: Within our publishing program, APA is involved in a number of innovative initiatives that support the goals of public access. They include the following: APA s PsycARTICLES Direct electronic product allows the public Internet access to the initial stage of a database of full-text articles from journals published by APA, the APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe Publishing Group. No fee is charged to search the electronic database or to read and print article abstracts. APA also participates as a publisher partner with the Health InterNetwork Access to Research Initiative (HINARI). Sponsored by the World Health Organization,
HINARI provides free or very low-cost online access to the major journals in biomedical and related social sciences to not-for-profit institutions in developing countries. HINARI includes over 2000 journals from 70 publishers. APA has entered into an agreement with the Wellcome Trust to make articles funded by the Trust publicly available on the Internet upon publication. The Wellcome Trust recognizes the significant costs for publishers associated with public access and has taken the financial responsibility to examine ways to help offset publication costs. The table of contents (ToC) of every issue of all APA journals is published on the APA Website with links to each article s abstract. We also send e-mail alerts about those ToCs to anyone who signs up to receive them. The ToC with links remains posted on the Web until the journal s next issue is off-press. The new ToC then replaces the old one. Within the association s public communications program, the following initiatives promote the public s access to psychological science and its understanding of ways in which psychological science findings can be applied to everyday problems. (August 2008) Early next year APA will launch its rebuilt Web site with a state-of-the-art search engine. This new search tool will allow visitors to search on a term (e.g., depression ) and view results of relevant documents within APA s public content, as well as free access to abstracts of articles within APA subscription databases. With this new advanced search feature, the APA Web site becomes a tool by which the association is able to provide public access to both the summarized psychological literature written for the lay public as well as links to abstracts of the actual published research. APA devotes considerable resources to a press release program, which brings current findings being published in APA journals to the public using the news media as the delivery mechanism. This allows for a large multiplication effect as the news media reach is much greater than that of any single association or literature repository.