The rationale for both the Cornyn-Lieberman bill and the public access provision of the CURES bill is straightforward. The federal government spends more than $55 billion annually to fund a wide variety of research in health, scientific, and other fields. Research sponsored by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) alone results in more than 60,000 peer-reviewed articles per year. Wide, rapid, and easy access to the results of this research is essential for everyone who wishes to apply or build upon it, from other scientists and scholars to health care professionals, patients, manufacturers, teachers and students, policy-makers, nonprofit organizations, and citizens. Giving taxpayers access to the non-classified research for which they have paid will advance research and all the benefits of research, from health care and pollution control to energy independence and public safety....
Both bills protect the system of peer-reviewed journals. Both leave copyright law unchanged, let extramural grantees copyright their articles, and allow them to transfer copyright to journals. The six-month delay before research is made openly accessible will shield journal publishers from potential subscription or licensing cancellations. Journals will still have the exclusive right to distribute the final published version of articles, unless they allow those versions to be deposited by authors in repositories.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 6/02/2006 10:21:00 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.
