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at different sites. “Biomedical re- not yet published — equivalent engines and the Internet are not
search has changed,” noted Lip- to about 10 percent of the articles only changing the medical litera-
man. “Every paper has more and indexed monthly by PubMed — ture. They are also challenging the
more data. People are not just would be submitted to PubMed traditional economics of scholar-
reading these papers. Research- Central each month, according to ly publishing and fueling heated
ers want to compute on the un- Lipman. As of July 9, 2005, 340 debate about the extent to which
derlying data.” such unpublished manuscripts (or the biomedical literature should be
The NIH is seeking to expand about 165 per month) had been accessible online and available
public access to the research it submitted — a participation rate without charge to the user.4,5 As
sponsors and to increase the use- of only 3 percent. There are no search engines and the online
fulness of PubMed Central. As of signs that the participation rate for medical literature itself continue
May 2, 2005, the NIH has asked unpublished manuscripts is in- to evolve, the pace of change is
the investigators it supports to creasing — in August, September, likely to increase.
submit voluntarily to PubMed and October of 2005, it was be-
Dr. Steinbrook is a national correspondent
Central an electronic copy of any tween 2.2 and 2.7 percent. In for the Journal.
scientific report, on acceptance for December 2005, Senators Joseph
publication, and to specify when Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Thad 1. Fox S. Health information online. Wash-
ington, D.C.: Pew Internet & American Life
the article should become publicly Cochran (R-Miss.) introduced leg- Project, May 17, 2005. (Accessed December
available through the repository.4 islation that would require the 14, 2005, at http://www.pewinternet.org/
According to the policy, posting public posting of all NIH-funded PPF/r/156/report_display.asp.)
2. Sack J. HighWire Press: ten years of pub-
for public accessibility “is request- peer-reviewed manuscripts at lisher-driven innovation. Learned Publ 2005;
ed and strongly encouraged as PubMed Central within six months 18:131-42.
soon as possible (and within 12 of their publication. Failure to 3. Wren JD. Open access and openly acces-
sible: a study of scientific publications shared
months of the publisher’s official comply could result in the loss via the Internet. BMJ 2005;330:1128-31.
date of final publication).” How- of public funding for federal em- 4. Steinbrook R. Public access to NIH-funded
ever, the initial response to the ployees or grantees. research. N Engl J Med 2005;352:1739-41.
5. Wysocki B. Scholarly journals’ premier
voluntary policy has been slow. Physicians and researchers status is diluted by Web. Wall Street Jour-
With 100 percent participation, have extremely diverse informa- nal. May 23, 2005:A1.
about 5500 peer-reviewed manu- tion needs. Meeting these needs
scripts that have been accepted but requires diverse resources. Search
behaviors often have important humans — in particular, male ceedingly complex phenomenon
health consequences — they may, homosexual orientation — has and cannot be viewed as the prod-
for instance, include some activi- some characteristics of an in- uct of a set of genes. Neverthe-
ties associated with food intake, stinct. The sexual orientation of less, our behaviors that are in-
sleep and wakefulness, and even the human male is a consistent stinctive and crucial to survival
tobacco use. feature that is under neural con- and reproduction are likely to be
Despite being variable and sub- trol, that generally leads to spe- subject to simple genetic control.
ject to strong cultural influences, cific behaviors, and that is thought Such behaviors might include
human sexual and reproductive to have a strong biologic basis.3 those necessary to maintain ho-
behavior has some components However, detailed genetic studies meostasis — such as eating,
that are probably instinctive. To- of male sexual orientation have drinking, excreting, and thermal
gether with existing evidence that produced conflicting results. The regulation — and those associ-
human sexual orientation has a sum of the data suggests a role ated with mating and the mater-
genetic component, this instinc- for specific genes on specific nal care of infants.
tive element raises the question chromosomes, but no individual
of whether sexual orientation or genes have been identified. Dr. Drayna is the acting chief of the Section
aspects of sexual behavior in Human genes are not subject on Systems Biology of Communication Dis-
orders, National Institute on Deafness and
humans could be determined by to experimental manipulation, Other Communication Disorders, Rock-
the action of one or a few genes and there can be strong political ville, Md.
— a provocative hypothesis, but resistance to certain types of re-
1. Demir E, Dickson BJ. Fruitless splicing
one that is not addressed by the search into human sexual behav- specifies male courtship behavior in Dro-
results of Demir and Dickson. ior. As a result, it may take some sophila. Cell 2005;121:785-94.
The fruit fly has no neural func- time to accumulate evidence that 2. Baker BS, Taylor BJ, Hall JC. Are complex
behaviors specified by dedicated regulatory
tions comparable to those of the any particular gene is necessary genes? Reasoning from Drosophila. Cell 2001;
human cerebral cortex (which has and sufficient to specify sexual 105:13-24.
a large role in most human sex- orientation or a particular sexual 3. Mustanski BS, Chivers ML, Bailey JM.
A critical review of recent biological research
ual behavior). There is evidence behavior in humans. More gen- on human sexual orientation. Annu Rev Sex
that male sexual orientation in erally, human behavior is an ex- Res 2002;12:89-140.