Paul Krawzak, Ney draws line at public access to research, The Times Reporter (Dover-New Philadelphia, Ohio), December 12, 2003. Excerpt: "Year after year, the Congressional Research Service [PS: no web site] produces thousands of exclusive, coveted reports and analyses that help lawmakers make sense of complex issues and legislation. Yet taxpayers, who finance the service to the tune of $80 million a year, have no guaranteed access to the publications. Critics of the limited availability say as long as taxpayers are footing the bill, they ought to have access to the reports, which are noted for their balance and thoroughness....As chairman of the House Administration Committee, which has jurisdiction over the CRS, [Bob] Ney [R-OH] launched a new service that allows lawmakers to make reports of their choosing available via a link in their congressional Web sites. 'It used to be nothing went up online' for the public to see, Ney said. 'Now we're telling members if you want to do a work product and put it online, that's fine. At the same time, Ney called a halt to efforts to provide greater public access to the research. He ended a two-year pilot project, which allowed the public to search through the otherwise inaccessible CRS database via links on the Web sites of participating congressmen." (Thanks to Gary Price.)
Some of the CRS reports are OA and some are not. The best site for the OA reports is maintained by the private-sector National Council for Science and the Environment. The non-OA reports are available in print from Penny Hill Press, a private-sector publisher which acquires its copies from cooperative members of Congress and sells its editions to the public and even to federal government agencies.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 12/16/2003 03:23:00 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.
