The Journal Publisher Compliance Database: A Comprehensive Response to the National Institutes of Health Public Access Policy Mandate

Objective : To describe how the prompt intervention of a group of proactive academic medical librarians diffused concerns linked with the implementation of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) public access policy by providing the medical center with the necessary tools and knowledge to comply with the mandate.

Project Description : The new NIH public access policy presented a challenge to academic communities as it introduced a new approach to publishing and copyright. By leveraging on its ample expertise in publishing and the publishing industry, as well as a robust digital library infrastructure, the Eskind Biomedical Library (EBL), through a comprehensive and proactive response, eased its adoption as its community embraced it without apprehension. A fully searchable database of over 6,000 health sciences titles and more than 400 publishers was promptly assembled to inform prospective authors on journals’ open access requirements as well as publisher’s compliance with the new policy. The database is updated quarterly and links to personalized assistance and training by the library. The promptness of this intervention demonstrated once more to leadership the EBL’s critical value to its research community.

Results : Since the inception of the Journal Publisher Compliance Database, the EBL team has engaged in 3 comprehensive updates of the resource records to ensure integrity of the information. Over the course of maintaining the data, the team observed that 15% of 463 publishers represented in the database underwent changes in their compliance status as policies evolved in response to the NIH mandate. Higher usage statistics originating from researchers, information specialists, and office assistants at the time of the database implementation (April 2008) compared with subsequent months clearly demonstrates improved publisher-to-author communication over time. Awareness is key and is maintained through quarterly proactive online sharing.