New PCORI Policy Supports Public Access to Published Research Findings

"The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) today announced a new policy that will facilitate free and ready public access to the published findings of PCORI-funded comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) studies.   The new policy requires PCORI-funded researchers to see that copies of published papers summarizing their results are deposited in PubMed Central (PMC), the digital archive of full-text biomedical and life sciences journal literature maintained by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). In addition, PCORI will provide up to $3,500 per project to cover fees that journals charge to provide free public or open access. These funds will enable research teams to ensure that papers reporting their final study results are available free of charge to the public immediately upon publication. This new policy is the latest step in PCORI's efforts to make the results of its research widely available to patients, family caregivers, clinicians, and other healthcare stakeholders ..."