American Astronomical Society Applauds Obama Administration's New Open-Access Policy | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

"The American Astronomical Society (AAS) supports President Barack Obama's new policy on 'open access,' the idea that published results of taxpayer-funded research should be made freely available on the Internet rather than permanently restricted to journal subscribers or other paying customers. Central to the new policy is the recognition that publishers 'provide valuable services, including the coordination of peer review, that are essential for ensuring the high quality and integrity of many scholarly publications. It is critical that these services continue to be made available.' The AAS is not only the premier professional association of astronomers in North America, but also the publisher of two of the field's leading research journals. Thus the Society's position might seem unusual, as publishing revenues can be substantial. But the AAS doesn't rely on journal proceeds to fund other Society activities, choosing instead to operate the journals in a strictly revenue-neutral mode, setting author charges and subscription fees to cover publishing expenses and to enable the long-term curation of journal content. The policy proposed by the Obama administration recognizes the important role that publishers play and preserves the value of journal subscriptions for the maintenance of quality editing and peer review. This ensures that the AAS can operate its journals for the benefit of astronomy and closely related disciplines. 'If the public is truly to benefit from the research they're paying for,' says Chris Biemesderfer, Director of Publishing at the AAS, 'they must have access to articles that have been fully subjected to all the quality assurances that guarantee good scholarship.' Last Friday, the head of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), John Holdren, directed federal agencies with more than $100 million in research-and-development (R&D) budgets to develop plans within the next six months to make the published results of federally funded research freely available to the public within one year of publication. The lion's share of U.S. research in astronomy, planetary science, and related fields is funded by NASA or the National Science Foundation, both of whose budgets exceed the $100 million minimum. Results from this research often appear in the Astrophysical Journal or the Astronomical Journal, both published by the AAS. So why is the AAS supportive of open access? 'Because we're already in compliance with the administration's new guidelines,' says AAS Executive Officer Kevin B. Marvel. 'Research articles from all AAS journals are available online, without charge, 12 months after their original date of publication, and they've been available that way for years...'"