The White House issued a breakthrough
policy memorandum on February 22, 2013 requiring federal agencies to create
plans for providing the public with free online access to the published
research they fund.
The directive calls on federal
agencies with annual research and development budgets of $100 million or more
to open up online access to both journal articles and research data resulting
from public funding. Free access to the
articles is to be available within 12 months from publication in peer-reviewed
journals.
The federal government sponsors research
with billions of dollars every year in order to bolster knowledge generation
and encourage innovation. Providing free
online access to the research is a veritable way to reap the benefits of
taxpayers’ investments.
SPARC, a non-profit organization that
has been working to broaden public access to scholarly research, notes that
free access to the Human Genome Project has enabled scientists around the globe
to use the data for groundbreaking projects and has developed an estimated
economic impact of almost $800 billion.
As Heather Joseph from SPARC says, “The Directive will accelerate
scientific discovery, improve education, and empower entrepreneurs to translate
research into commercial ventures and jobs.
It’s good for our nation, our economy, and our future.”
The directive has been applauded with
enthusiasm by academics, library associations, and businesses alike. Details of the policy memorandum are
available here: http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/22/expanding-public-access-results-federally-funded-research
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A parallel development on the open
access front is the bipartisan Fair Access to Science and Technology Research
Act (FASTR), which was introduced in Congress on Feb. 14, 2013 with a view to
enable free online access to and lawful digital reuse of journal articles
emanating from publicly funded research.
The bill would require federal
agencies with annual extramural research expenditures of $100 million or more
to mandate that the peer-reviewed manuscripts of journal articles resulting
from publicly funded research be made freely available online within six months
after the articles are published in scholarly journals. The free public access would maximize the
dissemination of the research findings, encourage constructive reuse of the
articles, and augment the return on public financing of research.
FASTR is important to higher education
because it:
- enhances the visibility and recognition of publicly funded
research at different institutions
- strengthens knowledge sharing through unfettered access to
numerous peer-reviewed research articles
- helps increase the impact of the research
- facilitates examination of research conducted at institutions
that compete for federal funding;
- enables computational analysis, text mining, data mining, and
other innovative reuse of the research articles for the purpose of
scholarship advancement
- ensures long-term preservation of the research articles in
designated digital archives
More information about FASTR is
available from these resources:
- The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research (FASTR)
Act of 2013: http://www.wyden.senate.gov/download/fastr-act
- SPARC FAQ for the Fair Access to Science and Technology
Research Act (FASTR): http://www.arl.org/sparc/resources/sparc-faq-for-the-fair-access-to-science-and-techn.shtml
- UK Libraries Open Access Research Guide: http://libguides.uky.edu/content.php?pid=331920&sid=3581831
Peter Suber, an eminent scholar and commentator on open access, has offered
an analysis of how the White House’s directive and FASTR complement each
other. You can find his comments here: https://plus.google.com/109377556796183035206/posts/8hzviMJeVHJ
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