Administration Takes Faster Action on Access to Federally Funded Research

OSTP says the new policy 'reflects substantial inputs from scientists and scientific organizations, publishers, members of Congress, and other members of the public,' including some 65,000 people who signed a petition for public access to federally funded research.  The publishers’ input, in particular, is clearly reflected in several key differences between this and FASTR that closely mirror the American Association of Publisher’s critique of the legislation: while the 12 month embargo is a guideline, agencies are empowered to 'tailor its plan as necessary to address the objectives articulated in this memorandum, as well as the challenges and public interests that are unique to each field and mission combination' ... Libraries are explicitly referenced twice in the policy’s text: once as one of the stakeholders whose views should be solicited by the agencies, and again as a possible partner for the agencies in maintaining repositories.  Almost immediately after the policy was issued, the Association of Research Libraries (ARL) issued a statement applauding it ... The Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition (SPARC), a division of ARL, also applauded the directive ... Steven Bell, Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) president 2012-2013, told LJ, 'Wow. This is big, profoundly historic and incredibly exciting. ACRL members, along with our partners in the academic community, have worked long and hard to advocate for expanded public access among federal agencies other than NIH. We celebrate the White House Directive that will make it happen now.' However, Bell, too, felt that the policy does not obviate the need to pass legislation ... Besides the usual library suspects, the policy was applauded by the National Science Foundation and several of the agencies themselves, including the Department of Energy’s Office of Science, the Department of Agriculture, NASA, and the Department of Commerce."