Being aware that the National Institutes of Health is engaged in a review of its policies regarding the dissemination of research conducted with NIH funding, we encourage NIH support of open access to journal articles documenting agency-funded research....
Although the potential of the Internet to reduce costs and expand dissemination was widely anticipated, experience has shown that vested publishing interests --immune from normal market forces because of their control of "must have" content-- have blocked the realization of these potential benefits. This situation impairs scientific investigation and impedes the fullest sharing and application of research findings....
[T]he subscription-based journal model currently prevalent no longer maximizes access to research material. Nor is it economically sustainable. After years of active engagement in market-based experiments aimed at introducing competitive forces to achieve expanded dissemination of research, our organizations have concluded that open-access business models are a highly promising means of addressing the fundamental needs of science and medicine in a digital age....
[T]he opportunity to maximize U.S. taxpayers' return on their investment in NIH will not be fully realized until the power of the Internet and corresponding new financial models are embraced. We encourage NIH to unleash this potential by earmarking a portion of NIH grant funds to be used only for open-access publication and recommending to grantees that they avail themselves of this option.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/18/2004 01:27:00 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.
