Public Access to Publicly Funded Research
Heather JosephExecutive Director, SPARC NAGPS Legislative Meeting
March 2, 2013
Each Year, the U.S. Government spends ~$60 billion on scientific
research.
~60 billion of yours – and my – tax dollars.
Happy to make this spend.
- Generate new ideas - Accelerate scientific discoveries - Fuel innovation - Grow the economy - Improve the welfare of the public
This can only happen if we can access and use the results.
Not so easy right now.
Over 200,000 articles report on U.S funded research each year.
Majority of these can only be read by purchasing access through a
journal.
Price Barriers
www.righttoresearch.org
Source: http://web.archive.org/web/20050828210650/libraries.mit.edu/about/scholarly/expensive-titles.html
Library budgets journal prices
“Scientific, technical, medical, legal and business journals – an $8.9 billion market - grew at 3%
in 2010…”
STM Publishing News, http://www.stm-publishing.com/?p=722
$8.9 BILLION REVENUE/YEAR =
www.excellentadventures.ca/NFL.gif
What Does this Mean for You?
www.arl.org/sparc15
• NEED GRAPHIC
www.arl.org/sparc16
• NEED GRAPHIC OF PAY-PER-VIEW Screen
www.arl.org/sparc17
• NEED GRAPHIC OF PAY-PER-VIEW Screen
What Do You Do?
It Isn’t Inter-Library Loan…
I ask the author for a copy.
I get it from a colleague at an institution with a subscription.
We’re Used to Workarounds….
But we Need a better solution.
www.arl.org/sparc26
“By open access, we mean the free availability of articles on the public
internet, permitting any users to read, download, copy, distribute, print,
search or link to the full text of these articles, crawl them for indexing, pass them as data to software or use them
for any other lawful purpose…”
- The Budapest Open Access Initiative – February 14, 2002
Open Access = Access + Reuse
How does this play out in policy environment?
Policy Focus: Public is entitled to access and use
the results of research their tax dollars pay for.
So far, only 1 U.S. Funding Agency has enacted policy to make this a
reality.
In 2008, Congress passes law enacting NIH Public Access Policy.
A Simple Policy:If you receive funding from the NIH, you agree to make articles reporting on your NIH-funded
research available online to the public for free within a year of
publication.
“The NIH is the world’s largest grant agency; this decision is the
scientific equivalent of successfully storming the
Bastille.”
- Michael Nielsen, The Future of Science
NIH Policy is a Proven Success.
• Enacted April 2008• Over 2.6 million full text articles now
available via PubMed Central• ~700,000 unique users per day• 99% articles downloaded at least once• 25% university users, 40% citizens, 17%
companies, remainder government or others
Next Up: All Other Federal Science Agencies
Four years of aggressive advocacy in Congress and with White
House...
…Are paying off.
White House Directive requires 19 U.S. Federal Agencies and
Departments to develop Public Access Policies over next 6
months.
Huge.
NYTIMES Ed Here.
Huge. But not Endgame.
We Want Open Access to be the Law of the Land…
Not Just the Preference of a President.
Stakeholders can influence specifics of Agency Policies over
next 6 months.
Our Goals Include:
• Shortest Possible Embargo Period – no longer than 6 months
• Full Digital Reuse Rights (no restrictions other than attribution)
• Articles permanently housed in federal archive
Critical tool to accomplish this – Legislative Pressure.
The Fair Access to Science and Technology Research Act - FASTR.
Senate Sponsors:Sen. Cornyn (R-TX)Sen. Wyden (D-OR)
House Sponsors:Rep. Doyle (D-PA)Rep. Lofgren (D-CA)Rep. Yoder (R-KS)
FASTR (H.R. 708 and S. 350)
• Covers 11 U.S. Federal Science Agencies• Requires 6 month max. embargo• Calls for federally maintained/approved
archive• Requires “Productive Reuse” of digital
articles
FASTR:
Different from previously proposed legislation because it
puts issue of reuse rights squarely on the table.
Why Is This Important?
Because We Want More of these Moments…
Not These.
To Truly Succeed, We Must get the Rights Right.
Major Effort Needed to Educate, Well, Pretty Much
Everyone.
NAGPS Can Help.
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