Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Friday, July 14, 2006

Mandating OA in the US

Ray, English, Open Access to Federally Funded Research--The Time is Now, Portal, July 2006 (accessible only to subscribers). A guest editorial. I don't have access, so I'll borrow --with thanks-- the excerpt blogged by John Russell:
[I]mplementation of a comprehensive U.S. policy would have enormous implications for access to research both in this country and abroad. In addition to its immediate benefit for researchers, success in changing U.S. national policy would substantially strengthen international efforts to establish public access to government-funded research, and it would give a large boost to the worldwide open-access movement.

It is especially encouraging that the effort to provide public access to federally funded research has strong bipartisan support in Congress. The Cornyn-Lieberman and Cures bills are, in each case, sponsored by a conservative Republican and a moderate Democrat. Earlier congressional support for the NIH public access policy spanned the political spectrum. Given such bipartisan support, it is realistic to believe that the NIH policy can soon be strengthened and that the public access provision of the Cures bill and the Cornyn-Lieberman bill can eventually be passed into law.