The Genetic Alliance has written an open letter to Congressmen Regula and Obey supporting the House Appropriation Committee's recommendation that the NIH require open access to articles reporting NIH-funded research. Excerpt from the letter: "Today...most American taxpayers do not have access to the reports on biomedical research conducted with U.S. Government funds. Although the public paid for this research, informative, carefully screened reports on the research results are generally available only through costly journal subscriptions averaging thousands of dollars annually or via per-article purchases that can run $30 or more each. It is sometimes suggested that this information is not available to the 'homemaker in Nebraska' because she is ill equipped to deal with this information. We know, from our 600 members - disease-specific advocacy organizations - that the homemaker has many resources to help her use that information. The advocacy organizations help their millions of members digest this information, and the homemaker can bring this information to her doctor. In addition, this access is critical for the thousands of rare diseases - clinicians are unable to keep us with information on 6000 rare diseases, and patients must be the bridge to new knowledge....The Genetic Alliance also calls upon the U. S. Senate to ensure the inclusion of the House language in the final Congressional Appropriations report. This consumer-centered measure is a long over-due means by which to enhance public health education, speed the translation of genetic advances into quality, affordable health care, and inform and empower patients in their health care decisions. Ensuring the widespread dissemination of research knowledge is an essential and inseparable component of our nation's investment in research itself."
Update. The Genetic Alliance issued a press release on July 21 to accompany this open letter.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 7/20/2004 10:46:00 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.
