On 26 December 2007 President Bush signed the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2007 (H.R. 2764) which includes language that will change the current NIH Public Access Policy from voluntary to mandatory.  The policy, when implemented by NIH, will require all manuscripts (the post print version) generated by NIH-funded research be deposited into PubMed Central, the National Library of Medicine’s digital repository, within 12 months of publication.

For more information:

Alliance for Taxpayer Access Press Release

Chronology of the NIH Public Access Policy

Becker Services to Help Authors Comply with the Policy

Full Text of the Bill–see page 81, section 218

Interesting blog post (petermr’s blog: A Scientist and the Web): Why the NIH Bill Does Not Require Copyright Violation