Though Open Access to Publicly Supported Reports is Increasingly Anchored in Policy, It Still Divides Scholars’ Opinions

In early April 2018, research reports prepared on behalf of the Congressional Research Service, which produces a large quantity of high-quality research papers for the attention of Congress members and, theoretically, the general public on a wide variety of topics, such as trade, patents and agriculture, have become mandated to be published in Open Access. This move reduces barriers to accessing these reports, since they do not have copyright protection, are governmentally funded and were difficult to find. Additionally, this transition to Open Access makes workaround solutions for accessing materials that are already in the public domain through third-party websites redundant. This adoption of Open Access by the United States federal government represents another instance of policy-making that recognizes this format as promoting research searchability, visibility and transparency.