Open Access News

News from the open access movement


Thursday, August 05, 2004

More on the UK and US proposals

Access all areas, The Economist, August 5, 2004. An unsigned news story. Excerpt: "[T]he dominance of Elsevier and its kin is under attack. The House of Commons Science and Technology Committee did more than just lament the rising price of journals. It told the British government that the country's universities should be required to ensure that all their research papers are available free online, and that government-funded research grants ought to include free access to the findings a condition of the awards. The government will respond next month. American politicians, too, are getting cross. Earlier this month the House of Representatives' Committee on Appropriations approved a provision in a bill that backs open access to material published by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The committee expressed concern at the lack of public access to research findings, and at the rising price of journals. These, it commented, were 'contrary to the best interests of the US taxpayers who paid for this research'."