Some open access repositories archive only citations for articles or other materials; some archive both citations and full text materials; some allow free downloading and some do not. Opponents of open access publishing (primarily traditional publishers and major scientific associations) cite such issues as the doubtful permanence of electronic archives, questions of copyright ownership and reductions to traditional publishers' profits, costs to researchers who have to pay to have their manuscripts published in open access journals, the possibly dubious quality of articles published, questions about peer review processing and quality, perceptions of the academic community and the academic reward system which appear to give more status to articles published in traditional, subscriber-pays journals, and so forth. Policies For Paying Publication Costs in Relation to the Future of Open Access Publishing

Among the issues related to "author pays," and possibly to the future of open access journals, is whether the federal government will continue to allow some research grant funding to be used to pay charges levied on authors or institutions for the costs of publishing articles resulting from federally funded research. After that, non-subscribers have free online access only to original research articles that were published in the hard-copy journal. As will be discussed below, a mixed model is used in the case of NIH's Public Access Policy , which asks authors to voluntarily submit to PubMed Central (PMC) the peer reviewed version of a manuscript accepted for publication in a journal. The language, reported to have been authored by Representative Ernest J. Istook, Jr., "recommended" that NIH permit open access to NIH-funded research by "requiring" researchers to deposit peer reviewed articles accepted for publication and associated supplemental materials in NIH's PubMed Central , an free access repository information system, within six months after publication of the article in a scientific journal. They are supposed to be posted and made available for public viewing after the embargo period, or sooner if the publisher agrees, but within 12 months. The report endorsed NIH's objectives in establishing the "Public Access Policy" and included language requiring NIH to develop an "aggressive" outreach program to ensure full participation by grantees in volunteering to submit their journal manuscripts to the NIH archive. 109-149 ). The Senate passed H.R. It requires all federal departments and agencies that invest $100 million or more annually in research to develop a public access policy that requires all final manuscripts or articles that result from federal funding to be posted in a free publicly accessible archive as soon as possible but no later than six months after publication. Issues Relating to Federal Open Access Archives and Publishing

In addition to NIH's Public Access policy and PMC , other federal agencies have engaged in open access activities. 3010 ). But they both expressed concern about duplication of effort with the private sector and urged NIH to work with private sector publishers to avoid unnecessary duplication. In November 2004 the U.K. government (the Department of Trade and Industry) rejected the proposal, maintaining there is no indication that access to scientific journals is impeded under current publishing methods, and that according to the government, "the true costs of open-access publishing are still not clear ..." and "it is 'not obvious ... that the 'author pays' business model would give better value for money than the current one...." In June 2005, the United Kingdom Research Councils (RCUK), the main British supporter of publicly funded research, "which distribute[s] most government science funding," issued for comment a draft policy which mandates researchers it funds to archive their journal articles and conference papers "in a free public archive 'at the earliest opportunity, wherever possible at or around the time of publication.'" Assessment of proposals for governmental citation archives to link to publisher's websites to read published articles, as opposed to posting articles on a free access government system.
Controversies about open access publishing and archiving confront issues of copyright and governmental competition with the private sector. Traditional publishers typically charge readers subscriber fees to fund the costs of publishing and distributing hard-copy and/or online journals. In contrast, most open access systems charge authors publication fees and give readers free online access to the full text of articles. Supporters of the open access "movement" object to the rising costs of journal subscriptions; share peer reviewers' reluctance to do free reviews for journals rapidly escalating in price; and believe that scientific collaboration, advancement, and utilization will be hastened by free access to information. Traditional subscriber-pays commercial publishers and some scholarly associations object to most open access publishing because it may weaken the publishing industry and erode profits. Critics seek to limit free government-run repositories only to articles and citations from federally sponsored research; others oppose fees in the thousands of dollars charged to authors to pay the costs of publishing articles or view as unreliable foundation donations that sustain some open access activities.
In response to congressional action in 2004 and 2005, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) implemented a policy that requires authors it funds to voluntarily submit copies of their manuscripts to NIH's free access electronic database, PubMed Central (PMC), as soon as possible after a journal accepts the article for publication, but within 12 months. The policy allows a publisher-imposed embargo, or delay, before allowing free public access to the manuscript. Many publishers oppose this policy and there is only about a 4% compliance rate by grantees. In September 2006, NIH publicized procedures to permit publishers to post manuscripts or articles directly to PMC and to give NIH free access to some articles for the embargo period.
In the 109th Congress, report language on H.R. 3010, signed as P.L. 109-149, endorsed NIH's policy to post peer-reviewed manuscripts and mandated NIH to develop its open access repository, PubChem, and to avoid duplication with private efforts. H.R. 5647 would have mandated NIH-funded researchers to submit final manuscripts to PMC; S. 2104 would have required submission within six months. S. 2695, the Federal Research Public Access Act (FRPAA), would have required federal agencies with research funding exceeding $100 million annually to require all their federally funded researchers to deposit final manuscripts in a publicly accessible archive within six months of acceptance by a publisher.
During the 110th Congress, issues likely to generate controversy could include the FRPAA, which may be reintroduced; modification of NIH's Public Access policy to require the government to link to the original journal's website to read articles; monitoring the added costs of expanding PubMed Central; determining if other agencies will use governmental nonexclusive licensing to allow access to commercially published journal articles, regardless of copyright ownership; assessing the quality of science published in open access journals; and evaluating the economic impacts of open access publishing on traditional publishing. This report will be updated as needed.