Does PMC provide sufficient coverage to be a comprehensive and useful archive of biomedical information?
In support of its mission, NIH has a long history of collecting, organizing, and disseminating biomedical literature. NIH and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) in particular have provided access to biomedical literature for well over 150 years. For example, beginning with the computerization of Index Medicus in 1964, the availability of MEDLARS Batch Mode in 1964, Medline in 1971, GenBank in 1983, and Clinical Trials and PMC in 2000, NIH and NLM have adopted and effectively used evolving information and communications technologies. These technologies permit NIH to provide more effective access to scientific literature in new ways that reflect how the scientific community engages in research and also allow the agency to better fulfill its mission. Although it will not be the sole source, PMC will be a centralized resource for access and long-term archiving of articles generated through publicly funded biomedical research.
