DATE: February 16, 2000

TO: IC Directors, NIH
Scientific Directors, NIH
Executive Officers, NIH

FROM: Deputy Director for Intramural Research, NIH

SUBJECT: Electronic Publishing

I am transmitting to you the report of a committee on electronic publishing, chaired by Henry Metzger and including Robert Nussenblatt, Ed Liu, Annette Wysocki, Eugene Koonin, and Celia Hooper. This report has been discussed and has the concurrence of the Board of Scientific Directors.

The report includes the following recommendations, which I support:

 1) Approval of manuscripts submitted for electronic publication will require the same process as is currently used for printed publications;

 2) NIH intramural scientists who wish to establish electronic journals, as either official duty or outside activities, may do so following an approval process at the IC level;

 3) The Scientific Directors will monitor and keep track of creation of electronic journals by intramural scientists and of submission of data to non-peer reviewed electronic sites and report these events to the Deputy Director for Intramural Research on the Management Control Checklist.

 The DDIR will, in turn, ascertain whether such electronic publications remain in keeping with the principle stated in the "Guidelines for the Conduct of Research in the Intramural Research Program at NIH" that "All research staff in the Intramural Research Programs should maintain exemplary standards of intellectual honesty in formulating, conducting, and presenting research, as befits the leadership role of the NIH."

/S/  

Michael M. Gottesman, M.D.

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