Free PDFs of reports of the National Academies Press

The National Academies Press (NAP) was created by the National Academies to publish the reports issued by the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council, all operating under a charter granted by the Congress of the United States. The NAP publishes more than 200 books a year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and health, capturing the most authoritative views on important issues in science and health policy. The institutions represented by the NAP are unique in that they attract the nation’s leading experts in every field to serve on their award-wining panels and committees. The nation turns to the work of NAP for definitive information on everything from space science to animal nutrition.

Implementing the free download option will make the results of NAP work more available to the American public and to other readers throughout the world. NAP hope that it will make a positive impact on the world by more freely sharing their knowledge.Projections based on free PDFs currently available on the NAP Website show that this change in policy will enhance the dissemination of reports from about 700,000 free PDF files downloaded per year to more than 3 million annually by 2013.

PDF files of reports that were formerly for sale on the National Academies Press (NAP) Website and PDFs associated with future reports are now available free of charge to Web visitors.