Peter Suber - Obama administration trumpets its open-access policy
peter.suber's bookmarks 2013-03-31
Summary:
"The Obama administration just issued a report on its open-government initiatives....The report boasts (at pp. 37-38) about last month's memorandum directing the largest federal funding agencies to adopt green OA mandates....The Obama administration has been developing an OA policy since at least December 2009, when it first called for public comments on whether to extend the NIH policy across the federal government....But as late as September 2011, it was not willing to list any kind of OA initiative in its "national action plan" on open government....However, now that OA is official White House policy, it's not only worth mentioning, it's worth trumpeting. Note that the White House isn't merely praising something praiseworthy. It's showing that OA policy has come in from the cold. It used to be a good idea that might succeed or fail, a good idea subject to opposition lobbying, a good idea with an uncertain future, a good idea too risky for public commitment. Now it's settled, embraced, entrenched, official, bragworthy. The February directive was itself the clearest possible sign that the tide had turned. But this new policy PR is a new sign that the White House is committed to the policy and will not back down."
Link:
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