Lila Guterman, NIH Proceeds With Plan to Provide Open Access to Scientific Papers, Chronicle of Higher Education, September 1, 2004 (accessible only to subscribers). Excerpt: "The news [of the NIH OA plan] has led supporters and critics of open access to actively lobby Elias A. Zerhouni, the NIH's director. Dr. Zerhouni has met with three groups with a direct interest in the issue: with publishers in late July, with scientists on Monday, and with patients' advocates on Tuesday. 'The status quo is not an option,' Dr. Zerhouni said at Tuesday's meeting....Indeed, at the close of Tuesday's meeting, Dr. Zerhouni said, 'We are not standing pat. We are going to move.' Access for taxpayers was also emphasized by a group of 25 Nobel laureates who wrote an open letter to members of Congress last week. "As scientists and taxpayers too, we ... object to barriers that hinder, delay, or block the spread of scientific knowledge supported by federal tax dollars -- including our own works," wrote the Nobelists, who included James D. Watson, the co-discoverer of DNA's double-helical shape, and both of last year's winners in chemistry, Peter Agre and Roderick MacKinnon....A coalition of patient-advocacy groups and libraries also formed to support the NIH's move toward open access. 'The time has come to make taxpayer-funded research publicly available,' said Prudence S. Adler, associate executive director of the Association of Research Libraries, which is a member of the new coalition, called the Alliance for Taxpayer Access."
Posted by
Peter Suber at 9/01/2004 07:43:00 AM.
The open access movement:
Putting peer-reviewed scientific and scholarly literature
on the internet. Making it available free of charge and
free of most copyright and licensing restrictions.
Removing the barriers to serious research.
I recommend the OA tracking project (OATP) as the best way to stay on top of new OA developments. You can read the OATP feed on a blog-like web page or subscribe to it by RSS, email, or Twitter. You can also help build the feed by tagging new developments you encounter.
