Research Funding and Peer Reviewed Journals

Yesterday (April 15 2010), Representatives Doyle (D-PA), Waxman (D-CA), Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL), Harper (R-MS), Boucher (D-VA) and Rohrabacher (R-CA) introduced the Federal Research Public Access Act (HR 5037), a bill that would ensure free, timely, online access to the published results of research funded by eleven U.S. federal agencies.Alliance for Taxpayer Access.

Text of H.R.5037

The US government funds research with the expectation that new ideas and discoveries from the research will propel science, stimulate the economy, and improve the lives and welfare of Americans. In addition, the government also funds collaborative information technology and network-based infrastructure projects such as investments in supercomputer centers to leveraging investments in collaborative database development such as Genbank. These wide and diverse investments in e-science have fundamentally changed the nature of scientific research and the understanding by members of the research community of how research is conducted and shared. Recently, policy makers have recognized these changes via legislative and administrative processes and are now focused on new strategies to enhance US economic competitiveness, to advance science, to better manage the research investments, and improve access to the fruits of our collective investment.

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is a coalition of patient groups, physicians, researchers, educational institutions, publishers, and health promotion organizations that support barrier-free access to taxpayer-funded research.

ATA is directed by the Scholarly Publishing & Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), an alliance of academic and research libraries and organizations committed to the promotion of systems that capitalize on the networked environment to disseminate research (http://www.arl.org/sparc). The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is committed to the following four general principles:

American taxpayers are entitled to open access on the Internet to the peer-reviewed scientific articles on research funded by the U.S. Government.
Widespread access to the information contained in these articles is an essential, inseparable component of our nation’s investment in science.
This and other scientific information should be shared in cost-effective ways that take advantage of the Internet, stimulate further discovery and innovation, and advance the translation of this knowledge into public benefits.
Enhanced access to and expanded sharing of information will lead to usage by millions of scientists, professionals, and individuals, and will deliver an accelerated return on the taxpayers’ investment.
ATA advances these principles through advocacy of US Government-wide public access and other policies that support the sharing of science made possible by the Internet and taxpayer investments.

The Alliance for Taxpayer Access is administered by The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), a non-profit coalition of libraries working to create a more open system for the exchange of scholarly research results.

Federal Research Public Access Act of 2010
ARL Submits Comments to OSTP Regarding Public Access Policies for Science & Technology Funding Agencies (Jan. 19, ’10) [PDF]
ARL Joins Coalition in Letters to Lieberman and Cornyn Federal Research Public Access Act of 2009
Principles for Release of Scientific Research, US Office of Science & Technology Policy (May 2008)
NIH Public Access Policy
AAP PR Campaign against Open Access and Public Access to Federally Funded Research, 2007
CURES Act of 2005
Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006
ACS Challenging NIH’s PubChem Database, 2005
Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA)

Via: ARL.

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