NIH Initiatives
NIH-Funded Research - In July, 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives called on the NIH to mandate that the results of federally funded research be made available to the public quickly and for free. After several revisions and much discussion, the final NIH "Policy on Enhancing Public Access to Archived Publications Resulting from NIH-Funded Research" was released February 3, 2005 at www.nih.gov/about/publicaccess/index.htm.
"Beginning May 2, 2005, NIH-funded investigators are requested to submit to the NIH National Library of Medicine's (NLM) PubMed Central (PMC) an electronic version of the author's final manuscript upon acceptance for publication. …. The Policy now requests and strongly encourages that authors specify posting of their final manuscripts for public accessibility as soon as possible (and within 12 months of the publisher's official date of final publication)."
The current self-archiving policies of publishers include the time period from final publication to posting for public accessibility for publishers that allow self-archiving and are accessible at www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/php?all=yes.
PubMed Central - The new NIH Policy could see a major increase in open access articles of more than 60,000 articles per year (10-12% of the articles indexed annually for Medline) on PubMed Central at www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov. Launched in 2000 as a depository of the world's life sciences research, PubMed Central currently provides free access to more than 350,000 articles published in about 170 journals. Although PubMed Central and other initiatives have seen a significant growth in the number of papers available through open access, it is estimated that only about 20% are now freely available, including the large and growing number of papers accessible through author self-archiving in publicly accessible institutional repositories.
BioMed Central (BMC) Initiatives
Open Access Journals at www.biomedcentral.com currently include free access to more than 125 journals, begun since 2000, and to the research articles in some subscription titles. Several editors selected BMC over commercial publishers for their new journals and the impact factor of a few open access journals exceed their commercially published equivalent. The open access BMC journals are fully archived on PubMedCentral and indexed for Medline. Institutional memberships in Biomed Central support its open access journals and permit authors at member institutions to publish for free in these journals. The University of Miami is a member, and in 2004 nine papers were published by UM authors.
Open Repository at www.openrepository.com is a service by which BMC creates and maintains repositories of the research published by member institutions and organizations. Open Repository is built using DSpace, the standards-based open source technology from MIT employed by other institutional depositories. Content is easily searched by author's name, department, subject area, article type and date published. Articles published by individuals at an Open Repository institution can be uploaded if published in journals that allow authors to self-archive their work.
Public Library of Science Initiatives
PLoS Biology at www.plosbiology.org and PLoS Medicine at www.plosmedicine.org are high-end open access publications archived at PubMed Central and indexed in Medline. The Public Library of Science recently announced an institutional membership program similar to BioMed Central's to offset the publication costs in their journals for authors at member institutions, such as the University of Miami. Other new initiatives include PLoS Genetics and PLoS Pathogens which will launch in July and the Fall, 2005 respectively.
Scientific Society Initiatives
HighWire Open Access Journals at highwire.stanford.edu/lists/freeart.dtl is currently the world's largest archive of open access full-text journals in the
biomedical sciences. Articles in more than 230 journals published by major biomedical societies are freely available after an embargo period of six - 24 months.
PNAS implemented an open access option in 2004 "whereby authors may pay a surcharge of $1,000 to make their article freely available online immediately upon publication" in HighWire. In 2005, an institutional online subscription will let authors at institutions, such as the University of Miami, pay only $750 to make their papers immediately free online.
University and Foundation Initiatives
Institutional Repositories capture, distribute and preserve the intellectual output of an institution by archiving pre- or post-prints of articles locally. One of the best known is MIT's DSpace at libraries.mit.edu/dspace-mit/ in which authors upload and store their digital works in collections arranged by departments or other institutional communities.
SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition at www.arl.org/sparc/, is an "alliance of academic and research libraries and organizations working to correct market dysfunction in the scholarly publishing system." Founded in 1998, SPARC has launched highly successful journals and supported BioOne at www.bioone.org, a repository of full text bioresearch journals, suported in part by membership fees, such as the University of Miami.
JSTOR at www.jstor.org is a reliable and comprehensive archive of important scholarly journals, begun in 1994 with funding from the Mellon Foundation and supported by membership fees paid by libraries, such as the University of Miami.
Commercial Publisher Initiatives
Nucleic Acids Research, the "flagship journal" of Oxford University Press, moved to a mandatory open access model in 2005 in which authors pay a fee once their paper has been accepted and all articles are published online immediately after publication. Authors at institutions, such as the University of Miami, that are maintaining an archival print subscription to NAR during this transition year will have to pay only $500 instead of the $1,500 non-member fee.
Springer-Verlag Choice is an open access option begun in 2004 whereby authors pay a publication fee of $3,000 and their article is made available online immediately upon publication in any of 1,150 journals.
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New A-Z List of Online Journals
2005 began with a new A-Z list of online journals in the health sciences under the "Quick Links" section of the Library's web site at calder.med.miami.edu. The new list includes every journal in the previous list, plus many more titles and many more links for each title. It enables the Library to easily make the numerous additions and changes to the list that occur each year accessible by patrons within 24 hours.
Supported by SerialsSolutions, the new list continues to make the Library's 5,000 online journals accessible by title, subject and by publisher or aggregator. For the first time, journals can be searched for titles that begin with certain words, contain certain words, and consist only of certain word(s). Journals can also be searched by ISSN (the International Standard Serial Number), and there is a list of the publishers of accessible e-journals which support keyword searches of the full text of their journals.
New Lighting
All lighting throughout the four floors of the Library was upgraded as part of a campus-wide initiative. The change is extraordinary and must be seen to be appreciated.
Database News
New Medical Genetics Resources
- "Medical Genetics Searches" filters were created by the NIH as a PubMed Clinical Query at www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query/static/clinical.shtml. Diseases or other medical genetics topics entered in the search box at this web site can easily be restricted to articles on one or more of the following topics: Diagnosis, Differential Diagnosis, Clinical Description, Therapy, Genetic Counseling, Molecular Genetics, and Genetic Testing.
- "Genetics, Medical", a new subject heading, was created for the Library's Internet Catalog at exlibris catalog. Resources previously listed under the heading 'Genetics and Molecular Biology' were transferred to the new heading, and new resources were added.
Current Journal Sections
- "Online Only" labels were made for the files in the current journal collection on the first floor of the Library for the almost 300 print subscriptions which were cancelled with the last 2004 issue. A list of these titles is available under the "Quick Links" sections of the Library's web site.
- All volumes and issues published in 1999 or before were relocated to the second floor journal collection and the second of two major shifts in the first floor collection is nearing completion.
Online Reference Question Form
A new reference question form was added to the "Forms" link at the top of the Library's web page for patrons who prefer this method of requesting information.
CDs in Reserve Collection
The CDs in the Library's Multimedia Room at the rear of the first floor were relocated to the Reserve Collection behind the Circulation Desk to facilitate access during the 102.5 hours each week the Library is open.
Longer Loan Period/Higher Caps on Overdue Fines
For the first time in more than twenty years, the Library has changed the circulation policy for items in its collections that circulate: all books on the third floor and audiovisuals in the Learning Resources Center. The circulation period for reserve materials remains unchanged. Library privileges, including borrowing and remote access to electronic materials, can be revoked for repeat abuse of circulation policies or excessive outstanding fines. Effective February , 2005:
Loan Period/Renewals/Recalls: Items that circulate may be checked out for two weeks (14 days) and may be renewed twice, two weeks (14 days) for each renewal, for a total of six weeks from the day the item is checked out.
Items can be renewed in person at the Circulation Desk or by calling 305-243-6403. To be renewed, overdue items must be brought to the Circulation Desk. Items that are recalled may not be renewed.
To recall or place a hold on an item in circulation, stop by or call the Circulation Desk at 305-243-6403. Recalled items should be returned as soon as possible, but no later than seven days after the due date. When returned, you will be notified that the item is available at the Circulation Desk and you have three (3) days to pick it up, after which it will be returned to the stacks.
Overdue Fines: Fines continue to be assessed at $1.00 per day per item, beginning on the fifteenth day after the item is checked out. There continues to be a 7-day grace period for fines, from the 15th to the 21st day after the item is checked out.
If the item(s) is returned during the grace period, fines will be eliminated. However, once the grace period ends, fines are retroactive to the due date.
Fines accumulate up to the replacement cost of the item. If the item's value is unknown, the default cost is $150.
Overdue Notices: The Library will send three overdue notices for each item. The first and second notices notify the borrower of the overdue fines that were assessed. The third notice is a bill for the replacement of the item borrowed.
Payment of Overdue Fines: Fines due when an item is returned will be reduced by:
75% if returned within 30 days of the due date?
50% if returned within three (3) months of the due date
25% if returned within six (6) months of the due date
Replacement Billing: Bills for overdue and unreturned items, and for items damaged beyond repair or future use, will be for the replacement cost of the item, if known, or, if the value is unknown and cannot be determined, at a default price of $150. A $20 replacement fee for each item and a $10 replacement bill service charge will be added to each bill.
30 days after the third overdue notice/bill for replacement is sent, the matter is transferred to the Library's Business Office and then to the University's Bursar's Office for collection.
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The Medical Library Committee met February 7, 2005 to discuss the Library's critical need for additional funding in 2005-2006 and the recently released NIH Policy on open access featured on the first page of this issue. The following individuals are current members of the Committee:
Carl Eisdorfer, PhD, MD, Chair |
Center on Aging |
| Ager, Arba PhD |
Microbiology and Immunology |
| Avisar, Eli MD |
Surgery |
| Chandar, Jayanthi MD |
Pediatric Nephrology |
| Chaudhari, Nirupa PhD |
Physiology and Biophysics |
| Estores, Irene MD |
Rehabilitation Medicine |
| Jeffers, Lennox MD |
Hepatology |
| Lucci, Joseph MD |
Obstetrics and Gynecology |
| Mayeda, Akila PhD |
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology |
| Miguez-Barbano, Maria MD |
Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences |
| Muller, Kenneth PhD |
Physiology and Biophysics |
| Rine, Rose PhD |
Physical Therapy |
| Roberts, Jr., Eugene PhD |
Neurology |
| Swaminathan, Sethusaman MD |
Pediatric Cardiology |
| Tozman, Elaine MD |
Medicine |
| Verma, Ashok MD |
Neurology |
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