The Federal Research Public Access Act [FRPAA], introduced on 2 May by Senators John Cornyn and Joe Lieberman, would require every federal agency with an annual research budget of more than 100 million US dollars to implement a public access policy. The proposed US bill comes shortly after a study published by the European Commission on Europe's scientific publication system, which recommends, among other actions, ensuring published articles arising from EU-funded research are made available in open access archives after a given time period....Through [the FRPAA], the legislators claim, taxpayers will reap a maximum return on their investment in government funded research, and benefit from accelerated scientific progress. 'This legislation is a common-sense approach to expand the public's access to research it funds. And it will help accelerate scientific innovation and discovery,' said Senator Cornyn....
However, not everyone is in favour of complete open access. In a statement issued on 9 May, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) said that the provisions of the bill threatened to undermine the essential value of peer review by removing the publishers' incentive and ability to sustain investments in a range of scientific, technical, and medical publishing activities....
In an effort to reach a common consensus on the subject in Europe, the European Commission is calling for reactions to its study and additional contributions to other issues linked to scientific publications. Interested parties are invited to react before 1 June. A conference discussing the study and its public feedback will be held in autumn 2006.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 5/15/2006 01:03:00 PM.
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.
