The NIH Public Access Policy at UNM: Sparking a Revolutionary Change in Research Culture and Practice

The NIH Public Access Policy at UNM: Sparking a Revolutionary Change in Research Culture and Practice

Holly E. Phillips
Erinn E. Aspinall
Philip J. Kroth

Presented at the Medical Library Association 2007 Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 21, 2007, 10:30am.

Description

Objective: To increase the University of New Mexico's current manuscript contribution rate of zero to PubMed Central in accordance with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Enhanced Public Access Policy (the Policy) by (1) determining investigators' awareness of and perceived barriers to compliance with the Policy, (2) developing a range of library-based interventions to support investigator compliance with the Policy, and (3) measuring the effectiveness of the interventions. Methods: The authors developed a PubMed query to measure the University of New Mexico's overall (7.7%) and investigator-submitted (0) contribution rate to PubMed Central in accordance with the Policy. The authors surveyed all (128) of the University of New Mexico's 2002-2005 NIH-funded investigators to ascertain their knowledge, acceptance, and perceived barriers to Policy compliance. The authors used the data to identify promotional, educational, and service activities the library could implement to increase policy compliance. Library faculty ranked the recommendations in order of their potential effort and impact, and the authors developed a strategy for implementing the highest ranked recommendations. The PubMed query will be used to evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts by comparing the pre- and post-intervention contribution rates. Results: The survey results demonstrate the importance of library support of the Policy and larger scholarly communication issues. As a result, the library included the creation of a scholarly communication support center in its 2007-2009 strategic plan. The new center will help researchers increase the impact of their scholarly work by integrating information dissemination protocols into the research process. Library faculty will implement these strategies in the newly created master's of science in clinical research program that is a part of the University of New Mexico's Clinical and Translational Sciences Center.