I’m in Washington today meeting with Sheila Walcoff, Counselor to the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS). The discussion will concentrate on Senate Bill 2695, the Federal Research Public Access Act of 2006 (FRPAA)....
We all search Pubmed to access the latest information on DMD [Duchenne muscular dystrophy] research and care, and often investigate other areas of research searching for ways to help our children. Using keywords, our search will result in a list of published articles and, in most cases, an abstract of the article will be available. While the abstract is helpful, it does not provide the whole story. You have to pay to access the article, unless you are associated with a University and even then, access is limited to specific journals. On average, the individual cost is $20 to $30 for each article. Keeping up with the latest information is very expensive!
As you might imagine, there are two sides to the story – namely the publishing industry is concerned about economic impact and believes access after 12 months is adequate. On the other side, stakeholders (us) want and need the information as soon as possible.
PPMD [Parent Project Muscular Dystrophy] has been working on this issue with the Alliance for Taxpayer Access (ATA). We support the proposed legislation that would mandate public access to federally funded research by NIH investigators within six months of publication. We believe access would have tremendous benefits for all: for the researchers who may not have ready access to all journals, for health care professionals who need to treat patients based on the latest research results, and for our families who need to make informed decisions for their children.
Because US taxpayers underwrite this research, we believe we have a right to expect its dissemination and use will be maximized. It is important to have access and equally important for us to look across the field – to ‘look under every rock’ – to stimulate new ideas and to learn from other fields.
Our goal is: free online access as soon as possible and no later than 6 months after the article has been published in a peer review journal.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 8/23/2006 11:19:00 AM.
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.
