Wikileaks to release nearly 10,000 Congressional Research Service reports
Wikileaks has obtained nearly 10,000 US Congressional Research Service (CRS) reports which it is preparing for publication. The CRS spends around $100M a year preparing high quality reports for members of Congress and Congressional committees. When members feel publication of a report is in their political interest, they are released. Alternatively reports that are not viewed as politically favorable are kept from the public eye....
Comment. This is excellent news. It's not the first project to provide retroactive OA to CRS reports, but it's probably the largest. I don't say "retroactive and unauthorized OA" because CRS reports are uncopyrightable from birth, and no permission or authority is needed. All that is needed is to get one's hands on a copy. For details on the other CRS OA projects, and background on the quality and access barriers to CRS reports, see our past posts.
Posted by
Peter Suber at 1/30/2009 01:14:00 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.
