A new Lithuanian law on science requires online access for publicly-funded research. It was adopted by parliament on April 30 and took effect on May 12. Read the new law in Lithuanian or Google's English.
Thanks to Emilija Banionyte and Rima Kupryte for hand-translating the section on research access:
Article 45. Publicity of the results of scientific activity
1. In order to guarantee the quality, transparency of the scientific research and to stimulate scientific advancement carried out utilising state budget funds, all the results of the scientific activity carried out in the state science and study institutions must be made public (via the internet and by other means) if this is in agreement with laws regulating intellectual property and protection of the commercial, state or work related secrets.
2. Results of scientific activity carried out at non-governmental institutions of science and studies using state budget funds must be made public (via the internet and by other means) if this is in agreement with laws regulating intellectual property and protection of the commercial or state secret.
Comments
The new law only requires that publicly-funded research be online, not that it be free online. It's not all that Lithuanian OA advocates hope to get, but it's a large and hard-won step forward. For print journals without online editions, the easiest way to comply with the new law may be through green OA. The law may inspire Lithuanian universities to launch institutional repositories to offer one easy way to comply with the new requirement. Moreover, the principle behind the new law is to guarantee access and transparency to publicly-funded research. With parliamentary support for this principle, OA advocates may be able to strengthen the law over time, much as the NIH request of 2005 became the NIH mandate of 2008.
Also see our past posts on OA activity in Lithuania.
Update (6/12/09). Emilija Banionyte tells me that in Lithuanian "to make public" suggests "free of charge" more often than not. However, the term doesn't always carry that implication and it's still too early to tell how lawyers and judges will interpret it.
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.
