NIH Asks for Your Opinion

Science Policy staff are drafting APA comments on two important issues this month. The first is the Strategic Plan for the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (NCCAM). NCCAM was formed from NIH's Office of Alternative Medicine in 1999 and has thus arrived at the end of its first five-year strategic plan this year. NCCAM has focused on methodically researching the efficacy and effectiveness of such complementary and alternative practices as herbal supplements (e.g., St. John's Wort), chiropractic and osteopathic interventions, and the role of meditation and prayer in health and healing. While most of NCCAM's portfolio was clinically focused in the past, the Center is moving toward a more balanced approach with additional basic research.

The Center's new draft five-year strategic plan is now available online. Several of the highlighted research areas are strong provinces of behavioral and social science. The new plan lists as primary research areas 1)Building Resources; 2) Mind-Body Medicine; 3) Biologically Based Practices; 4) Manipulative and Body-Based Practices; 5) Energy Medicine; 6) Whole Medical Systems; 7) International Health Research; 8) Health Services Research; 9) Ethical, Legal, and Social Implications of CAM Research; and 10) Integrated Medicine. Comments from any interested scientist can be submitted electronically. NCCAM is accepting comments through November 15, 2004. If you have ideas that you would like to give APA to help inform the Association's comments, please share them with Pat Kobor of the Public Policy Office by November 1, 2004.

A second topic on which NIH is asking for comments regards the open access of scientific research articles that were written to describe NIH-funded research. NIH has posted a draft notice in the Federal Register outlining a policy to require all such journal articles to be posted and available at no cost on the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central within six months after publication. NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, MD, has said that this policy would allow consumers of NIH research and those in the scientific community easier and free access to data that was paid for by public dollars. Some scientific journals already post their articles on PubMed after 6 months to a year; others don't. There is little information about how the proposal would affect the financial stability of journals, especially nonprofit journals such as those published by APA. However, since the plan was prompted in part by the concerns of libraries and others about the rising costs of scientific publications, especially for-profit journals, there is concern that some customers will forego subscriptions if they can get enough of the desired information free after a six-month wait. Some publishers are concerned that the NIH proposal spells the end of the subscriber-pays model of journal financing, since the subscription base of journals with NIH-based articles will most likely shrink. As a major publisher of psychological research, APA is carefully considering the impact of the draft regulation. The Boards of Scientific Affairs and Publication and Communication will discuss the proposal when they meet together in early November. Comments are due to NIH by November 16, 2004.

More information about NCCAM
Read NCCAM's d raft five-year strategic plan
S ubmitt comments to NCCAM
Read NIH's draft notice in the Federal Register
More informatoin about the National Library of Medicine's PubMed Central

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